Mission: Infiltrate!
by Whisperwill
Summary: It's wartime, and three powerful Konoha shinobi set out on a mission.  Their apprentices are in for the experience of a lifetime.  Pre-Vol. 1.
1. The Best Konoha Has

**Disclaimer: I don't own the unparalleled _Naruto_. I am not making money off this fanfiction story.**

**A/N: Finished a week ago, 12/23/11, as a Christmas present for my twin. I apologize for the sometimes ludicrously short chapter length. The parts of the story that are in italics signify a flashback or memory that took place anywhere from a week ago to several years previously. Horizontal dividers indicate a change in "scene" or time, or occasionally POV. The setting of the story is sometime during one of the Great Shinobi Wars. I'm still trying to figure out which one. XD Please review if you decide to read!**

**Rated T for blood/violence/intense imagery. If you think the rating should be higher, do please let me know.**

**Mission: Infiltrate!**

"The success of this mission is very important to Konoha," the Hokage stated to the three shinobi who stood before him. "It requires the greatest skill and secrecy. That is why I chose to deploy you three—because I know you're the best Konoha has to offer."

"You flatter us, my lord," murmured Orochimaru.

"You must return by the time of Konoha's raid on Iwa," the Lord Third reminded them.

"Twelve days to get there, get the intel, and get back," Jiraiya said, and grinned. "We can do it."

"There's one more thing," Lord Sarutobi added. "I want you to take your apprentices along." His order surprised Tsunade.

"The stealth and speed of a cell decreases proportionately to the number of ninja it contains," she pointed out the well-known rule. "Are you sure you want to send them with us, Sensei?"

"The apprentices cannot be allowed to linger in the village," the Hokage pointed out heavily. "It's wartime, and every available shinobi—_genin_ or _jonin_—is required to be on duty if at all possible." He stood. "Those are my instructions. Be on your way. And be careful, all of you."

"Yes, sir!" Jiraiya and Tsunade replied.


	2. What's His Name?

**A/N: I should probably mention that there's a little bit of "code" in this story. When a _genin_ calls a higher-ranking ninja "Master," he is showing respect to the senior shinobi. When a _genin_ says, "Sensei," he is specifically addressing his teacher. I hope that's not too confusing.**

_Never had Mitarashi Anko approached a birthday with such dread. She was going to be __**thirteen,**__ and she was the only one in her age group who hadn't been picked to build a cell. Everyone else was now part of a three-man team, ready for their assigned _jonin_. They all had it __**made**__, didn't they? They were about to graduate and become _genin_. Only Anko was left._

_Her classmates noticed her fidget and frown. "Hey, c-calm down, Anko," Gekko Hayate tried to console her. "'S not like the sensei are gonna leave you behind. . ."_

"_Easy for you to say," snapped Anko. "Your _jonin_ is coming today. How does it __**feel**__, huh? Being part of a cell already?"_

"_Cut it out," Shiranui Genma told her. "Hayate's right. No one fails to graduate from the Academy just because they didn't get the highest grades." His words were blunt, but they cut. Maybe the reason was that Anko was consistently at the bottom of her class, but none of the _jonin_ seemed to want her. And as the teachers built cells with senior cadets, Anko was—intentionally or not—left out of the triads. She stared at the ground, and Morino Ibiki saw her discouragement as he walked up._

"_Don't look so glum, Anko," he urged her. "Hey, look—there's this traveling _jonin_ coming today. I heard about it. He's coming to look for an apprentice." Anko raised her eyes, suddenly full of hope._

"_Who? What's his name? When is he going to be here?"_

"_Orochimaru," Ibiki answered. "And he's coming soon, if he isn't here already."_

_Anko stomped her foot. "Why didn't you tell me **sooner**?" She raced away._

_The sparring rooms were where all or most of the _jonin_ came first, when they were looking for promising students. Often young cadets would engage in mock fights when they knew the visiting master would be watching. But Anko saw no new faces there. She ran on._

_There were no strangers in the battle arena, the halls, or the classrooms. Anko had run out of places to check. He must not be here yet._

_Then she saw him. A tall ninja with flowing black hair. He was walking alone, staring straight ahead. No one spoke to him; Anko even saw some of the cadets skirt around him, as though they didn't want him to notice them. Were they crazy? Here was their chance! No, **her** chance. And she wasn't about to let it slip away._

"_Master!" she yelled out. Other would-be ninja would place themselves in his line of vision, or possibly introduce themselves with shy formality. That wasn't Anko's style. She ran around in front of him and planted herself right in his way. "Please make me your apprentice!" she cried, giving a quick, low bow. His eyes lowered to fix themselves on her face. For a long while he just stared at her. Then he reached down to smooth the cowlick in her hair. His hand moved down her head to her shoulder, and skated along her arm. He rested his palm against her stomach as though he could feel something there._

"_Yes," he replied quietly. "You will be my apprentice." Anko's eyes and heart lit up. She could hardly believe her good fortune. He hadn't even asked her name before accepting her!_

_They completed the process by registering themselves with one of the teachers inside. The sensei looked uneasy when it became obvious that Anko was the apprentice of choice for this renowned ninja. After all, she was the lowest in the class. Master Orochimaru took no notice of the teacher's reluctance._

_When Ibiki met Orochimaru's eyes—only for a second—he stiffened and found that he couldn't move. Anko never noticed._


	3. First Mission

"Anko."

Perched partway up a tree, Mitarashi Anko tilted her head back to see an upside-down version of her teacher staring up at her. She was practicing the standard for young _genin_: honing her chakra control by tree climbing. "Yes, Sensei?"

"Come down. You are going to accompany me on a mission." Anko, whose concentration had already been lapsing, slipped and began to fall headfirst towards the ground. Orochimaru's hands shot out to grab her waist. He flipped her upright, slowed her fall, and set her down on her feet.

"Really?" blurted Anko eagerly. "I get to come with you? On a _mission_?"

"Come," Orochimaru said in answer. He went toward one of the village entrances and beckoned her to follow him. "We're meeting the rest of our team in front of the Ember Gate." When they got closer, Anko could see a man with long white hair. There were two boys and a girl with him.

"Orochimaru!" the man called a greeting, and waved. His eyebrows went way up when he saw Anko. "You have an apprentice now? And she's a _girl_?" A blonde beauty walked up to them then, and the man's attention was immediately diverted. "Tsunade, you're a sight for sore eyes."

"Reign yourself in, Jiraiya," Tsunade sighed. "We're going to be in each other's company for the next week or so as it is." She wrinkled her nose, apparently not keen on the idea.

"So, while I'm leading a standard cell, both you and Orochimaru took on individual students," observed Jiraiya. "Are both of you _still_ trying to make me look bad?" Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"You know a medic ninja can only take on one student at a time," she reminded him grumpily.

"I'm simply not brave enough to teach three brats at once," was Orochimaru's reply. Jiraiya's cell didn't seem to take offense at the insinuation. The boy with golden hair and startlingly blue eyes waved like his master had.

"Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves," he said. "I'm Namikaze Minato." His _kunoichi_ teammate said cheerfully,

"And my name is Ikeda Kazuko."

"Ogawa Ryoji," mumbled the boy with close-cropped hair next to her. Anko spoke up next.

"I'm Mitarashi Anko," she introduced herself. They all turned towards the last girl, Tsunade's apprentice, who murmured shyly,

"My name is Shizune." She bowed to them, and Minato rounded out the introductions when he said,

"We already know who you are, of course, Lady Tsunade, Master Orochimaru. Jiraiya-sensei's told us all about you."

"What did he say?" Tsunade asked rather warily. Anko wished she knew everyone's name already like Minato and his friends, but she had only been with Orochimaru for a few days, and her new sensei didn't speak much.

"How beautiful you are, of course," the man called Jiraiya suavely answered his teammate's question. "Anyway—the mission. We're heading for Cloud, and our objective is intelligence-gathering. C'mon, let's head out so we can make some time before the sun goes down." As they began running, with the masters taking the lead and the students trailing behind, Kazuko asked her,

"Is this your first mission?"

"Yeah," Anko admitted. Minato smiled and nodded in understanding.

"Are you nervous?" Kazuko wanted to know.

"No!" Anko insisted, shaking her head hard. Nervous energy was bouncing around inside her, making her want to speed far beyond the team's moderate jog and sprint the whole way to Kumo. But she was _not_ nervous.


	4. You Shouldn't

Despite the few hours of jogging before nightfall, Anko was still all wound up when they stopped to eat supper. Since Jiraiya used fire-breath to light a fire, Anko assumed that their food would be burned to a crisp. But Jiraiya was a surprisingly good cook. His sauteed pork over noodles was delicious. The team sat around the fire until at least some of the apprentices got glassy-eyed. Anko still truly felt wide awake. Jiraiya's statement, when it came, was unwelcome. "Time for bed, people," he said as he got up and stretched.

"But I'm not sleepy, Sensei!" Anko said, although she wished right away she could take the words back. It was much too infantile a complaint for a girl of twelve years.

"What we have to discuss doesn't concern you," Orochimaru said bluntly. "Go."

"Yes, Sensei," Anko mumbled, and the five of them did as they were asked. They lay down on their bedrolls on a patch of ground where they wouldn't be able to hear the adults talking. Lying awake, Anko listened to the tones of their voices: Tsunade's, like gentle birdsong; Orochimaru's, like whispering wind; and Jiraiya's, a bear-like rumble.

By no means was Anko planning on drifting off to sleep without knowing what was being talked about. She got onto her hands and knees. "Where are you going?" Kazuko asked softly.

"I want to know what they're saying!" hissed Anko. She inched away from her sleeping spot, keeping low. Minato turned his head to watch her.

"You shouldn't," he advised her. "They told us to go to bed."

"We're not a bunch of preschoolers!" Anko shot back. "Besides, what if they're talking about _us_?"

Minato gave an awkward shrug while still lying down. "What if they are?" He didn't seem to mind the thought, for he rolled over and nestled himself in more snugly. His teammates, though, shot one another an unsure look. Ryoji bit his lip and scooted over to where Anko was.

"I want to go with you," he said in a low voice. Kazuko nodded earnestly.

"Me, too," she whispered.

"You shouldn't," repeated Minato without looking their way. "You'll get caught." But he didn't say more as they crawled away. Shizune was already in a deep slumber.

Anko led her trio without a sound to a row of bushes that provided a perfect hiding spot. ". . . but if we don't take longer than twelve days, as planned, we'll have plenty of food to last us," Jiraiya was saying. "Unless we want to send Orochimaru out to hunt." The humor in his voice was plain, and Orochimaru replied in kind.

"Only if you want mice." Tsunade gave a snort of revulsion.

"Can we _please_ just talk about the mission at hand?" she pressed them.

"Okay, okay," Jiraiya agreed. "We should reach the border in a day or two, and from there it's obvious that we have to—"

"Jiraiya," Orochimaru interrupted him, "before you bring up such matters, you ought to know something." He got onto the ground on all fours. Anko jerked her head back in an automatic reaction as the leaves hiding her and her accomplices were suddenly thrust aside. Orochimaru was still crouched several meters away. It was his tongue, stretched many times longer than it should be, that had uncovered their hiding place. He pulled it back into his mouth again and announced with a smirk, "We have eavesdroppers."

Tsunade's eyes flashed at the sight of them. "What do you three think you're doing?" she barked. "Where's Shizune?"

"She's still sleeping," Anko confessed under her breath. "Minato, too." Jiraiya ran his hand over his face.

"You ought to take a leaf out of Minato's book," he grumbled. Perhaps he had wanted to sound stern, but it didn't suit him. "Kazuko, Ryoji . . . come over here. I want to talk to you."

Orochimaru didn't seem angry, either. He came up to Anko as Kazuko and Ryoji crept over to stand next to Jiraiya. "Come along, Anko," he said breezily. "If you will not _stay_ in bed, you must be_ put_ to bed." He lifted her up and carried her back to her bedroll. Laying her down on the bedclothes, he tucked the blanket over her and seated himself next to her. Anko lay on her side, her face hot—he obviously meant to watch her until she fell asleep, to make sure she wouldn't sneak out again. "Anko," Orochimaru asked musingly. "What do you think would happen to an apprentice who was captured on a mission?" She waited for his answer before realizing that the question was meant for her.

"I . . . I suppose the apprentice might be killed. Or used as bait to trap the master." She squirmed uncomfortably. Was her sensei implying that she was liable to get captured?

"Perhaps," Orochimaru conceded. "Do you know what might happen to that apprentice if she knew too much?" He bent over Anko and stared into her eyes. "The enemies would obtain that information from the apprentice any way they could. They wouldn't stop until they had wrung out every bit of knowledge—like squeezing the last drops of blood from a wound." He smiled in an off-putting way. "Now, do you think I want my apprentice to undergo anything like that?"

"No, Sensei," muttered Anko.

"No," Orochimaru agreed. "Sleep now." Anko quickly closed her eyes, but it wasn't easy for her to fall asleep with the knowledge that her master was sitting right next to her, eyeing her.


	5. Nonstop Running

"I warned you," Minato sighed when he found out the next morning. He was shoving his belongings into his pack. "Master Orochimaru has a really good sense of smell. It's almost impossible to sneak up on him."

"I wish you'd told me that sooner," grumbled Anko. Minato looked confused.

"But he's _your_ sensei," he pointed out. "Didn't you know that already?"

"Yeah, what's it like?" Kazuko joined the conversation. "Being apprenticed to _Orochimaru_?" She said it as though her very use of the word _Orochimaru_ would convey her meaning, but Anko didn't really get it.

"I don't know," she said, annoyed that everyone seemed to know everything about everyone except her. "What's it like being apprenticed to Jiraiya? Or Tsunade?"

"Jiraiya-sensei is awesome," Kazuko answered promptly. "He's the Honorable _Toad Sage_. He's the best master ever!" Minato nodded in agreement.

"And Tsunade . . . everyone says she's the finest medic ninja in years—maybe the best anyone's ever seen." Shizune's soft, shy tone didn't mask her pride in her master. "I'm so lucky she chose to teach me." The rest of the students looked at Anko, expectant. She scowled crossly. There was nothing she could tell them about Orochimaru that they didn't already know, except that he was . . . strange. And she didn't want to tell them that.

"Orochimaru-sensei . . . he knows things," she said at last. "Weird things. Things that nobody else would know, or talk about. But he teaches them to me." Kazuko and Minato surprised her by giggling, although Ryoji looked troubled.

"Yeah, that sounds like Master Orochimaru," agreed Minato.

"Well, Jiraiya tells you everything," Anko complained. "So what does he say about my sensei?"

"That he's a freak," Kazuko replied frankly. "And Master Tsunade calls him a creep." Orochimaru, who happened to be listening to them, smirked as he was shouldering his bedroll.

"How flattering," he commented. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic.

"I just tell it like it is, Orochimaru," Jiraiya said with a grin.

"He is _not_ a freak!" Anko exclaimed indignantly.

"Hey, take it easy, Anko," Jiraiya said to her. "I didn't say he wasn't my friend." He smiled at Orochimaru then, in such a genuine way that it was clear what he said was true. "Now, come on. Let's go."

Their nonstop running during the day didn't bother Anko. Her energy remained in good supply. Shizune, a more fragile girl, didn't do so well. She was constantly falling behind; sometimes, the team had to stop for her to rest, or to catch up to the rest of them. Minato made it all look like a game. He could run, bound, and ricochet off trees with the skill of ninja far older than himself. In fact, he _did_ turn it into a game of sorts, urging his two cellmates to follow directly in his footsteps and do everything exactly the same way he did it. Anko scorned such childish behavior. They were surely too old to be playing Follow-the-Leader. Tsunade acted impatient with her comrades much of the time, bossing them around and telling them to do this or that. Orochimaru and Jiraiya always seemed to be at odds—either against one another in competition, or united against Tsunade as boys versus girl. But Anko thought to herself that the three's bickering was almost good-natured, the actions of those who had grown up together and were experts at squabbling by now.


	6. A Way to Do It

They reached the border and, at Jiraiya's insistence, stopped to eat. "This is the last time we'll get a hot meal," he pointed out. If it hadn't been for his height and age, Anko almost would have thought that he was pouting. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

It was Orochimaru's turn to make the food this time. His dinner was nothing to brag about, but nothing to complain about, either. Jiraiya seemed satisfied, at least. Tsunade had more important things on her mind than food, though. When they were finished, she turned to the students with a solemn expression on her face.

"Do you know what it will mean when we cross the border?" she prompted them. "We're on enemy territory after that. Foes are everywhere. As far as we're concerned, we can't trust anyone except each other."

"And we're basing our operation on stealth," Jiraiya added, uncharacteristically serious. "From here on in, we have to hide all traces of our presence as much as we can. That's impossible to do perfectly, but at least we can conceal our numbers." He gestured to Tsunade and Shizune. "If Shizune rides on Tsunade's back, then the only footsteps left behind are the footsteps of one ninja in high heels. If Orochimaru and Anko do the same thing, then we've 'cut our team down' to six instead of eight." He stroked his lip in thought. "There's no way that I could carry all three of you, though—at least, not for very long . . ."

"Sensei, we've thought of a way to do it!" Minato spoke up. "Watch this." He stood at attention, and Ryoji went to stand just behind him. Kazuko stood behind Ryoji. Minato started to walk, exaggerating his footsteps. Ryoji copied his every movement, stepping in the exact same places that Minato was. Behind them, Kazuko did the same thing. "See?" Minato said with a proud grin. He started to trot, and his teammates kept up, Ryoji stepping in Minato's unseeable footprints, and Kazuko stepping in Ryoji's. Minato accelerated to a run. With frowns of concentration, Kazuko and Ryoji sprinted behind him. Then Minato threw out his hand. At this signal, he came to a sudden halt. His teammates stopped, too, both of them standing on one foot. Thrusting his hand forward again, Minato took off with the other two following. They made a loop through the trees and came back to stand in front of their master. "Only one set of footprints," Minato explained. His grin was impish as he joked, "You only have one apprentice, Sensei." Jiraiya burst out laughing.

"That's great!" he cried. Kazuko looked at her golden-haired teammate with admiration.

"It was Minato's idea," she told them.

"Great thinking, Minato," Jiraiya praised him. "This way, there are only _four_ shinobi on our team. We're a standard cell." He and Minato grinned identically.


	7. These Small Nations

They crossed into the Land of Steam without incident. It wasn't hard to tell what gave the country its name. Within the mountains fringing the country, and even on the plains, there were natural vents that spat forth steam. Anko found this out quite abruptly after wandering over to check out one of the mounds of earth. The sensei were standing close together, sharing suggestions and going through their supplies once again. But when Orochimaru noticed where his student was heading, he moved at lightning speed to spring to her side and yank her backward. A gushing stream of superheated steam shot out of the earth in the place where Anko's head had been. She fell back against her teacher, who pushed her back to her feet and said tersely, "Stay away from the steam vents." After that, none of the apprentices went within five feet of them.

Yu may have been a foreign land, but Anko didn't feel as threatened as she had expected herself to be. Not that she had forgotten Tsunade's words of warning, but perhaps it was the simple act of being with the _Sannin_ that put her at ease. She was safe when she was with them.

Enemy ninja with puffy clouds of steam on their _hitai-ate_ headbands confronted their eight-man team not long after they arrived. "What is your purpose here?" the tallest among them demanded to know.

"Travel," Jiraiya answered him with the same briefness and reluctance to reveal information. "Your land is part of our route."

"And do we have no right to be told what purpose our land is being _used_ for?" the kunoichi asked. She put an odd emphasis on the next-to-last word, speaking it with bitterness. Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at her. He had no patience for them.

"Our purposes are our own. Do you plan on allowing us to pass?" The question was only voiced to comply with the standard practices of shinobi courtesy. It was easy to see from the Yu cell's faces that they had never intended to hinder the Legendary Three's passage. They glared at the grass and stepped aside like those who were swallowing their pride along with their words.

It was all the same with these small nations, Anko reflected with a mixture of pity and satisfaction. They would never dream of standing against Konoha, or any of the Five Great Nations. There was no way for any of them to muster the resources or manpower to do so. They were reduced to serving as transportation routes, like Yu, or battle sites, as Ame was. No more ninja moved to stop them. Even when they passed through Yu training grounds on their way through, the shinobi only watched as they raced by. _Genin_ stared and _chunin_ glowered. They looked as though they had a hard time of it. Their clothes were shabby, their figures lean, and their headbands not as bright as they could be. Anko couldn't help feeling compassion for them, enemies though they were.

* * *

><p>But if she had considered small countries to be insignificant, her opinion changed when they came to Kiri no Kuni. She had forgotten that this small nation—¼ the size of Konoha, if not smaller—had held its own against the larger countries for generations. And it continued to remain a force to be reckoned with. While still in Steam territory, their cell crouched near the border for the whole of two hours, watching and waiting. When they at last got up to move, Shizune and Anko stumbled, clumsy from being scrunched up so long. Without pausing, Tsunade and Orochimaru scooped them up and began to run as fast as they possibly could. There was no way any <em>genin<em> alive could keep up with their pace, and soon all of them were riding in their masters' arms. Orochimaru carried Kazuko so that it wouldn't be as hard for Jiraiya to sprint.

Anko had heard horror stories all her life about the Village of Bloody Mist. The tales were finally brought home to her when she saw the three sensei exercising such extreme caution. They truly didn't want to be discovered on enemy land this time. All those stories must have been more real than Anko had ever thought. Their cell journeyed through Kiri amazingly quickly. After all, they were literally running like the wind.


	8. The Web

As they passed into the Land of Lightning, Tsunade doubled back to make sure they weren't being tailed. From Orochimaru's shoulder, Anko admired the strange new leaves on the trees. Her sensei's head continued moving, his eyes darting back and forth. Jiraiya had pulled ahead, trailed by three apprentices. Anko felt Orochimaru stiffen underneath her. He said nothing, but spat a hiss like an angry snake. Jiraiya heard it and stopped running so suddenly that Minato almost ran into him. Ryoji crashed into his teammate, and Kazuko collided with them both. They went down in a heap. Jiraiya wasn't even paying attention to them. "What is it?" he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. Orochimaru crept up to him, his eyes on the canopy.

"This is a trap," he whispered. "A web." He pointed beyond them, but neither Jiraiya nor the apprentices could tell what he was gesturing at.

"I don't see anything. . ." Jiraiya said, confused. Orochimaru let out his breath impatiently.

"If you can't see the strands, look at the leaves."

"Leaves?" Jiraiya squinted around, his face still blank. "What about them?"

"They're not _real_," Orochimaru told him. "Don't you find the shape rather strange?" Jiraiya's expression changed to one of understanding.

"Letter bombs?" he guessed.

"Or something of the sort," Orochimaru said, nodding. "They're strung all around the trees, disguised by the forest."

"So, if we just keep our voices down—" Jiraiya began, but Orochimaru shook his head.

"The _web_," he repeated, exasperated. "It's strung at ground level, designed to trigger any one of the bombs if we touch it."

"Then how do we—" Jiraiya started to ask, but again he stopped before finishing his sentence. With his head cocked to one side, he listened. His eyes went wide. "Tsunade!" he whispered frantically. "She's coming fast! If we don't stop her, she'll—"

"Don't move," Orochimaru ordered him calmly. "And don't call out. I'll stop her." He took out a kunai knife and used it to make a long slit in his finger. Carefully, he went back the way they had come. He seemed able to see the ropes that were invisible to Anko, for he intentionally avoided putting his foot down in certain spots. In the distance, Anko could see Tsunade charging toward them with Shizune on her back, running hard to make up for lost time. Orochimaru calmly placed himself in her path.

"Out of the way!" Tsunade called irritably. In answer, Orochimaru held up his bleeding hand. Tsunade's eyes bulged. She planted her feet suddenly and came skidding toward them at top speed. The ground split under her feet; dirt and dust went streaming out behind her. She shuddered to a halt just in front of Orochimaru, up to her ankles in chunks of sod.

* * *

><p><em>At thirteen, Tsunade never showed fear<em>._ But when Orochimaru sliced a cut into his finger and held his hand above her head, she was a whole different girl_._ Sneering, he let the drop of blood on the tip of his finger hang over her, threatening to fall any moment_._ Tsunade stood with her eyes shut, trembling uncontrollably, her fists clenched_._ "Don't_ . . ._" was all she could say_._ "Don't_ . . . _don't_ . . . _don't_ . . ._"_

"_Come on, Orochimaru," Jiraiya defended her_. _"Knock it off_ . . ._"_

* * *

><p>Tsunade went down to her knees. Her murmur was a single word, not unlike a plea. "Don't." Orochimaru grinned unpleasantly, but he didn't withdraw his hand as he proceeded to explain.<p>

"We're in the middle of a booby trap. There are wires strung with letter bombs that are fashioned to resemble leaves. Trip over any wire, touch any leaf—even shout too loudly—and this place will go up in smoke." It was obvious that Tsunade wasn't hearing a word, but Orochimaru didn't seem to care about that.

"Master, please stop!" Shizune implored him, finally injecting some sense into the situation. "Please, you're . . ." She hesitated before finishing, "You're scaring my sensei. . ."

Orochimaru smirked and pulled his hand back. Tsunade remained disoriented for almost a full minute more. Gently, Shizune whispered into her ear, "I-it's all right, Sensei. It's over now . . ." Tsunade stirred and blinked like someone waking from sleep.

"You _creep_!" she snarled at Orochimaru, taking a swing at him. He ducked and stepped out of her way.

"Unless you want to cause the death of us all, I'd suggest you lower your voice," he advised her, his voice cool. "And don't make any sudden moves. You might trip the wires that way."

"Wires?" Tsunade repeated.

"We walked into a booby trap," Jiraiya repeated the information for her benefit. "There are letter bombs strung on invisible wires—bombs that look like leaves."

"If you're blind," Orochimaru muttered.

"And only Orochimaru can see them," Jiraiya went on, scowling fractiously at his comrade.

"Can't we just go around?" suggested Tsunade.

"There's no telling how far this string goes," Jiraiya pointed out. "We could end up spending a lot of time trying to find a way around it. And who knows—they might've lined their whole border with this stuff. It's wartime, remember."

"So we have to trust _Orochimaru_ to lead us through this?" Tsunade asked in a highly distrustful tone.

"Hey, it's not like he's gonna lead us into a fireworks display," Jiraiya pointed out. With a grin, he added, "If he did, he'd get blown up, too."

Orochimaru pulled Anko off his shoulder and held her close against his chest. He lifted one foot high, bent over, and stepped through an opening that only he could see. He lifted the other foot and set it down next to the first. Then he bent double and shuffled along before straightening and flattening himself against a tree trunk to slide past it.

"Follow me," he told the rest of them.

"Are you kidding?" blurted Jiraiya.


	9. Pay Attention

Orochimaru had to give the other team members instructions down to the tiniest possible detail. It took him five minutes to talk Tsunade through a few meters of progress—and Tsunade was sharper than the rest of them. When he was instructing Jiraiya, Orochimaru was often kept talking and gesturing for what seemed like endless amounts of time. At last he put a pale hand over his face, as though giving the sage up as a lost cause. "At least _pretend_ to pay attention," he growled in aggravation.

"I can't help it that I can't see what I'm avoiding!" Jiraiya defended himself, stuck in a comical position with one leg in the air and both arms stretched out to his sides.

"The way things are going, we'll be here for the rest of the day," grumbled Tsunade.

"Not the least because Ryoji seems to have wandered into a corner," Orochimaru noted. Poor Ryoji's eyes went wide with dismay.

"I'm sorry, Master!" he exclaimed. "I'll do whatever you say!"

"You _have_ been doing what he says, Ryoji," Jiraiya defended him. "It's Orochimaru's fault if you get trapped."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "Oh, don't worry. I can get him out." He folded his hands in the _mi_ _kata_ and sank underground. The next anyone saw of him, he was coming up out of the dirt at Ryoji's feet. The apprentice gasped and made the mistake of jerking back reflexively. His hand just brushed one of the "leaves."

"Don't move," Orochimaru warned him. Ryoji shut his eyes and froze in place, tense as a bowstring. Orochimaru gripped the boy's ankles and began to pull him under.

"M-Master Orochimaru. . ." Ryoji gulped.

"Don't be scared, Ryoji," Jiraiya called to encourage him. When the apprentice was up to his neck in earth, Orochimaru paused just long enough to command him,

"Hold your breath." Ryoji took in a shaky gasp of air before Orochimaru's hand pressed over his mouth. Together they vanished. Everyone waited; only the slight vibrations underground signified what was going on. With a crumbling noise, Ryoji's body poked up out of the hole where Orochimaru had originally disappeared. A long arm shoved the boy farther out, and Ryoji scrambled gratefully onto the grass. Orochimaru exited the hole in an almost slithering motion. Seeing Ryoji edging back, he placed a hand on the boy's arm. "Don't wander," he cautioned. "The web is much less dense where we are—but it's still around us."

"Yes, Master," Ryoji said, his voice shaky. Orochimaru turned his attention back to the rest of his team. He studied their positions carefully before fixing his eyes on his own apprentice.

"Anko, I will lift you free," he said to her. "When I tell you to, you must curl into a ball, as small as possible."

"Yes, Sensei!" Anko answered. Orochimaru's tongue snaked out, growing longer and longer as it curved around obstacles that were visible to him alone. It made its way to Anko and wound around her waist.

"Now," said Orochimaru. Anko pulled her knees in and wrapped her arms around them. Dizziness swept through her. She closed her eyes as her teacher lifted her up, down, and in a million other different directions before he set her down at his side and his tongue retreated. Next, Orochimaru fished out two lengths of string with small metal spheres attached to the ends. "Shizune, Kazuko—mimic me," he ordered. The two girls watched closely as Orochimaru put his arms flat against his sides. They copied his movements as he kneeled on the grass and lowered himself until he was curled up on the ground. "Now, lie flat," Orochimaru continued, "and be ready to catch what I throw to you." He swung the weighted ends of the wires he held, then thrust his hand forward. The metal balls flew just above the ground. Kazuko caught hers without having to move her hand. Shizune missed hers, but the sphere came to a stop when it plunked against her shoulder. Predicting what the master was about to do, both apprentices gripped their balls with both hands. Orochimaru gave a nod and told them, "Hold on tight." He reeled the girls in, both of them pressing their faces into the ground to stay as low as possible. Tsunade gave the tiniest sigh of relief when he'd pulled them out.

"Well done," she called to the girls. "And hurry up and get us _out_ of here, Orochimaru. Jiraiya looks like he's about to fall over."

"I'm fine," Jiraiya grunted, his words belied by his muscles, which were starting to tremble from fatigue.

"Master, why can't you bring us all out using earth style?" Minato asked. "Or teleportation jutsu?"

Orochimaru smiled slightly, and Anko's lip quirked in dislike. All the masters favored Minato's precocious intelligence and ninja skills. "Because _doton_ leaves traces behind, our team won't use it more than we have to," he answered the Namikaze boy. "And teleportation jutsu requires ultimate precision that can't be afforded by the maze of wires. But with you, I think I can speed things up a bit." He executed an amazing leap up into the trees, whirling and spinning in midair to avoid the invisible strings. Lighting on a tree branch above Minato's head, Orochimaru reached out a hand to him. "Fix your eyes on me, boy. Jump straight toward me, and you'll avoid the web." Minato didn't hesitate, but tensed his legs and sprang. Holding his arms swept back, he soared into Orochimaru's arms without obvious effort. Kazuko sighed with admiration; Anko frowned peevishly. Her sensei leaped back the way he had come and landed next to them. Only Tsunade and Jiraiya were left now. "I'll guide you through it," Orochimaru said to them. "Try to keep your mind engaged." He said it to both of them, but he was looking in Jiraiya's direction.


	10. Booby Trap

It wasn't easy for Orochimaru to make good on his promise. Tsunade, and Jiraiya especially, were bigger than the apprentices, and therefore found it harder to squeeze through the few gaps that would let them through. Certainly neither of them could crawl under the wires as Shizune and Kazuko had. But at last, after nearly an hour of instructions, several backtracks, and more than a few hissed insults, Jiraiya and Tsunade stood before them. The whole team had made it through the most convoluted section of the webbing. As they moved on, still making their way slowly, Jiraiya ribbed Orochimaru, "I don't think I've heard you talk that much since . . . well, no, I've _never_ heard you talk that much."

Gradually, they began to leave the acres-wide booby trap behind. Orochimaru was always stopping a member of the team to say things like, "Tsunade. A strand in front of you, at knee height." Or, "Kazuko. Jump forward, right leg first." Because Anko was right behind her teacher all the time, she didn't have to worry about things like that.

But she was instantly wary when she spied a dark shape in the trees from the corner of her eye. It was an unmistakable silhouette, otherwise in shadow. Orochimaru had seen it just before she had, and he stopped to squint at the outline of the far-off intruder. Anko pulled forth a kunai from each of her thigh sheaths. "I'll get him," she promised her teammates.

But with a shake of his head, Orochimaru said, "Be still, Anko." Determined to prove herself in his eyes, Anko jumped into the air.

"I can _do_ it, Sensei!" she declared, releasing both knives at once, dead on target.

"No! _Don't_!" Orochimaru's shrill bark ran the risk of setting off one of the bombs—that was enough for Anko to realize that something wasn't right. When he pulled out a kunai knife of his own and hurled it after hers, she became frightened. His knife caught up to her knife, and when their trajectories crossed, one of her kunai was deflected. It spiraled to the ground along with Orochimaru's.

But her second kunai was still flying. It hit the silhouette right in the head. Anko grinned despite herself. She _knew_ she would hit it.

And the stillness of the clearing was suddenly shattered by a _boom_ as the silhouette went up in flames. The leaves around it instantly ignited, and Anko watched as the fire moved from bomb to bomb, a chain reaction that blew up everything in its path, coming straight toward them. She was tackled from behind by her sensei and began falling face first. His weight landing on top of her would surely flatten her. Before impact with the ground could occur, Anko closed her eyes to brace herself.

But there was no collision. Anko opened her eyes on complete darkness. Trying to breathe and finding that his hand prevented her from doing so, she concluded that he must have taken her below ground. She could still hear crashing explosions and the roar of flames overhead. "Shizune!" Tsunade's voice cried from far off.

"Gather, team!" she heard Jiraiya bellow. Paralyzing fear shot through Anko; if she had been able, she would have been panting for air. It was due to _her_ mistake that the forest above was being blown up. If anyone died because of her. . .

As the seconds ticked by, she grew more desperate for air and began writhing against her sensei. He held onto her until the detonations above them faded, then shoved her aboveground. Anko gasped for air but instantly started coughing. Smoke was heavy in the air, and the trees all around were still on fire. Orochimaru emerged behind her and brushed past her. Seeing where he was headed, Anko again stopped breathing.

A charred and smoking Jiraiya lay prostrate on the blackened grass. It looked as though his long ponytail had been burned away. The clothing along the back side of his body was ruined, falling to ash. Anko didn't want to imagine what the condition was of the skin underneath.

"Jiraiya!" Tsunade's voice was distraught, unlike Anko had ever heard it. The medic shinobi rushed to kneel next to her fallen comrade. Shizune did the same.

"Tsunade, Shizune, you survived," observed Orochimaru.

"Look, Sensei! It's Master Jiraiya's team!" squealed Shizune in excitement. Jiraiya's limp body tilted upward as it was pushed up from underneath. Minato, Ryoji, and lastly Kazuko squirmed out from what looked like a white haystack that had been pinned under Jiraiya's stomach.

"He used the Needle Jizo," Tsunade murmured. Her eyes were unusually soft. "He saved his hair and his team, all in one."

"Jiraiya-sensei?" Kazuko cried when she saw that her teacher wasn't waking up. "Sensei! Are you all right?" She reached out to shake him, but Tsunade slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch him!" she warned the apprentice.

"Master, can you help Jiraiya-sensei?" asked Minato anxiously.

"Of _course_ I can help him!" Tsunade snapped back. Orochimaru moved to pick up Jiraiya and shoulder his limp weight. With Jiraiya on his back, Orochimaru bent over so that the unconscious Toad Sage wouldn't fall off.

"We have to get beyond the fires," he said. "The wires don't matter anymore; so we can move quickly."

"Good," muttered Tsunade. "If we're caught here. . ." She scowled and didn't finish the thought. Lifting first her own apprentice, then Orochimaru's, she placed one of them on each of her shoulders. "Hang on, girls," she told them. "Minato, Kazuko, Ryoji—follow my lead." The team took off, with Orochimaru leading the way.


	11. Your Fault

The expanse of burned area stretched on for acres. They finally got through it and moved deeper into the Land of Lightning, taking shelter in a cave. Tsunade laid Jiraiya down and cut through his shirt with scissors to take it off. The clothing stuck to him as she pulled it away. With a helpless frown, Minato watched her and Shizune tending him. He spun around and exploded at Anko, "This is all _your_ fault! If it hadn't been for _you_, our sensei would be just _fine_!" Having to watch Jiraiya, who was obviously in pain even while unconscious, and then getting verbally attacked by the usually soft-spoken Minato, was a crippling double punch for Anko. Her face twisted in distress.

"Hey, none of that, Minato . . ." croaked Jiraiya. He had finally opened his eyes. "Remember what I told you? Hold the team together; never drive it apart." He grimaced as Tsunade's hands probed a particularly nasty burn on his shoulder. "Besides, I'll be back to normal in no time." His apprentices clustered around him, alight with jubilation.

"Sensei!" they chorused.

"Hey, gang," he greeted them with a weak chuckle.

Orochimaru, alone of the eight, wasn't smiling. "The boy is correct," he hissed in Anko's direction, for her ears only. "The forest fire was your fault, as are Jiraiya's injuries. If our team is discovered by the Cloud ninja, the fault is also yours." His eyes burned with ire, and Anko shied instinctively away.

"Come on, move over, give him some air," ordered Tsunade, shooing the three apprentices away from Jiraiya. "I need room to work." She and Shizune put wetted cloths on Jiraiya's back.

Anko moved away from the rest and curled behind a tree. Shizune and Tsunade, occupied as they were, were ignoring her out of necessity. Jiraiya's cell was ignoring her out of spite. And her sensei's eyes would narrow dangerously whenever he looked her way. Anko wasn't an easily intimidated girl, but when she saw Orochimaru like that, she couldn't bear to be within eyesight of him.

Ironically, Jiraiya was the only one who didn't seem to be holding a grudge against her.

* * *

><p>It was late into the second watch of the night when Anko came creeping out at last. Tsunade and the rest of the apprentices were asleep. Jiraiya was sitting vigil, propped against a tree trunk. Tsunade had argued vociferously against his taking the shift, but Jiraiya had managed to convince her to let him do it. He was staring up at the few stars that could be seen through the leaves.<p>

"Master?" Anko spoke up, clenching and unclenching her fists.

Jiraiya blew out his breath. "What are you doing up, Anko?"

"You shouldn't be keeping watch," Anko pleaded with him. "I can do it, instead."

"I know, I know, I'm supposed to be recuperating," Jiraiya agreed, "but it works out perfectly this way. The others can get some rest. It's hard for me to lie down as it is." When he noticed that his statement harrowed Anko, he sighed again. "Sorry. Tsunade's always telling me I never think before I say anything. . ."

"Master, _you_ shouldn't be apologizing!" Anko protested. "_I_ should!"

"Apologizing for what?" Jiraiya wanted to know. The strange thing was, he seemed to honestly not know what Anko was driving at.

"Because _I_ got you into this mess!" cried Anko. "It's _my_ fault! I tripped the wire; I ruined everything!"

"It was an _accident_, Anko," Jiraiya contradicted her.

"No!" Anko went on earnestly. "If I had listened to Orochimaru-sensei, _none_ of this would have happened!"

Jiraiya was shaking his head. "How could you have known that you were shooting at a dummy rigged to the wires?"

"But I didn't do what my sensei said," Anko repeated. Her voice had died down to a whisper. Jiraiya's mouth quirked strangely, almost wryly. He sighed.

"You can never get him to look your way," he said softly. "He hardly ever talks to you, either. All you want to do is make him see that you _can_ become a great ninja. Maybe never as good as him, but maybe . . . you can still make him proud. You can still make him notice you." Anko was speechless as she stared at him. Was the master reading all her emotions on her face, or was he using some unheard-of telepathy jutsu? Jiraiya smiled with that easy grin of his. "I bet the only thing harder than being Orochimaru's _cell mate _is being his _apprentice_," he guessed. Anko's loyalty to her teacher kept her from agreeing with Jiraiya, but neither could she disagree with him in all honesty. Jiraiya laughed a little. "Get some sleep, Anko. And stop being so hard on yourself. That's Orochimaru's job."


	12. Stationary

The team was conspicuously stationary the next day. They couldn't move on with Jiraiya in his condition. Anko filled her time by washing clothes, dishes, and finally herself in the stream close by. Later in the day, she joined Shizune in gathering herbs for Tsunade's medicinal stores. Anything to stay out of her sensei's way.

Jiraiya argued with Tsunade again that night. His suggestion that he go back to Konoha dismayed his students and nettled Tsunade. The apprentices watched while they went back and forth, their conversation growing in volume. "I'm holding the team back," Jiraiya said. "We can't move on from here while I'm like this. With the forest fire we caused back there? If we're found on Lightning territory, these burns make me a dead giveaway."

"You can't _leave_!" Tsunade shot back. "You're our best hope for getting into Kumogakure unnoticed!"

"Right now, I'm the _last_ thing you need. Incriminating evidence—that's what I am."

"So we wait here while you _heal_," Tsunade repeated their intentions with impatience. "With continued application of chakra washes, you should be back to normal within a few days."

"Which is time we don't have," Jiraiya reminded her. "The mission must be completed, and it can't go forward when I'm dragging you down. So either I go back to the Leaf Village—"

"Not a chance!" snapped Tsunade.

"—or you use your chakra magic to heal me," Jiraiya finished. "Right here, right now."

Tsunade simply stared at him through her almond-shaped eyes. "Do you know what you're asking?" she finally said.

"I've seen you, Slug Queen." Jiraiya's casual use of his teammate's nickname didn't hide his earnestness. He leaned forward. "You store up huge amounts of chakra, and then release it all at once to heal all your wounds. No matter how extensive the damage is, you can make it like it never happened."

"You have no _idea_ the amount of chakra that takes!" Tsunade informed him, her voice heated.

"No, I guess I don't," admitted Jiraiya. His voice was heavy now. "I'm not asking you to do it. I'm saying that, if I stay . . . you _have_ to. We don't have time to waste. There's no other way." Tsunade's glossy lips tightened with reluctance, but she nodded.

"All right." All business now, she waved her apprentice to her side and pulled out a roll of bandaging. "Lie down," she told Jiraiya as she was cutting off a length of linen. She wadded it up and handed it to him. "And put this in your mouth. Chakra infusions aren't pretty."

Once Jiraiya was positioned before her, stripped from the waist up, Tsunade knelt at his side. Placing her hands flat on his back, one on top of the other, arms straight, she let out an abrupt shout. Everyone watched in fascination as light poured from her hands into her teammate's skin. Slowly she moved her hands along, tending every burn. Jiraiya's large hand was clasped over his mouth, his eyes closed, as he muffled his own scream. Anko stared at Jiraiya, whose face was twisted with pain; but Shizune's anxious eyes were on her sensei. Tsunade seemed to wilt little by little as she allowed light to pour freely from her hand. The bindi on her forehead faded; all of a sudden, she was wrinkled all over. She pitched heavily to the side before being caught by Shizune, who supported the suddenly frail-looking master. "Tsunade-sensei!" she cried. Carefully, she helped her teacher lean against a tree. "A-are you . . . all right?" Tsunade's breath was ragged, but she nodded in answer and pressed her hand consolingly to the girl's shoulder.

"Ohhhhh," Jiraiya groaned, pushing himself up. "Don't ever do that again. . ."

"You're welcome," rasped Tsunade with a weary half-grin.


	13. Hide Your Identity

Once Tsunade was back to her snappish self, the team was back in business. Jiraiya clapped his hands to assemble his comrades in front of him. "The first thing we have to do is disguise ourselves," he told everyone. "So take off everything that proves you're a ninja." He untied his headband, slipped off his gauntlets, and tossed them onto the ground. Tsunade and Orochimaru, together with Jiraiya, threw down shuriken, kunai, all weaponry that would convict them the moment they were caught. Reluctantly, the _genin_ dropped their weapons onto the pile, too. Jiraiya noticed their uneasiness. "These tools are a central part of our life as ninja," he stated the obvious. "But they're not the only weapons we have in our arsenal." He meant to bolster their courage, but Ryoji squirmed. Anko didn't feel confident, either. It may be very well and good for a ninja who could summon toads and utilize senjutsu, but she felt exposed when her kunai sheath was gone.

"Will we come back for them, Sensei?" Kazuko asked.

"Only if our route brings us back here, answered Jiraiya. "Now we're going to alter our appearances. For obvious reasons, Tsunade and Orochimaru and I can't afford to be recognized. . ." Anko knew why: the Prodigal Shinobi Three were in the bingo books of almost all the surrounding territories. "And you five look a little too much like _genin_ to go undercover just yet." He rummaged through his voluminous backpack. "So let's get you disguised." Tsunade removed her hair from its pigtails and pulled it into a bun. She did the same with Shizune.

"You'll be staying with me, Shizune," she told her student. "We'll be keeping our medical supplies and posing as traveling doctors. 'When going undercover, let the ninja use the tools of his own trade to mask his face.' "

"You know, if you _really_ want to hide your identity, you should go as someone's fiancée," Jiraiya suggested out of the blue. "Or bride." His smile was suave as he eyed Tsunade, and it wasn't hard for everyone to tell what was on his mind. Tsunade herself obviously knew exactly what he was thinking, for her eyes flashed dangerously. Anko waited for her to swing her fist in Master Jiraiya's direction, but instead—to everyone's surprise—she grabbed Orochimaru's arm.

"Fine," she snapped. Although the tone of her voice was angry, she twined herself around Orochimaru like an infatuated schoolgirl. Anko couldn't believe her eyes, even as she watched. "I'll go as a married woman. And Shizune can pose as my daughter. Will that make you happy?"

It was only too obvious that Jiraiya wasn't happy at all. His lower lip stuck out in what Anko could have sworn was a pout. But all he said was, "You're going to regret that."

"Undoubtedly," agreed Orochimaru, sneering at Tsunade, who glared at him as she dropped her act and disentangled herself from close proximity with him.

Jiraiya was now pulling articles of clothing out of his pack and holding them up experimentally. "Here, Anko, put this on," he said, handing her a beige jacket. So Anko shrugged it over her shoulders, but it was too large for her. The long, trenchcoat-type jacket reached to the ground, and the sleeves covered her hands. Grinning, Jiraiya coaxed the band out of her hair that held her ponytail in place. He rumpled her hair until she looked thoroughly mussed. "There you go. You'll be our little ragamuffin. And let's see . . . Kazuko . . . Kazuko can go with you." He pulled out a simple skirt and coat next, and handed it to his _kunoichi_ apprentice. "You two look a lot alike—almost as though you could be from the same clan. Hmm. You'll go as sisters, or cousins."

Kazuko sidled behind a tree and giggled as she put her new outfit on. "Sisters?"

"Sisters . . . orphans . . ." Jiraiya murmured more to himself than to her. "You'll go in as a pair . . . and Ryoji . . ." He stopped to think, and went on, "He should go with Tsunade and Orochimaru. And Minato can go in last, alone." Anko couldn't help noticing that Minato was the only _genin_ that Master Jiraiya would allow to travel by himself. She frowned but said nothing.

While Jiraiya began finding clothing to suit his other two apprentices' needs, Tsunade was busy explaining in great detail to Shizune how to be a medic while not revealing that one was a medic ninja. "It's all right to say that you've _treated_ ninja," she told her student, "but remember, as far as they know, you're not trained for combat. Don't use your scalpels as kunai. Don't use your hypodermics as darts. Even when treating wounds . . ." She withdrew into the woods, still lecturing, but Anko stopped listening when Orochimaru took her by the shoulder and drew her close. He took fragrant leaves and began rubbing them over her clothes and exposed skin.

"Um, Sensei?" she asked. Not answering, Orochimaru reached behind himself without looking, pulled Kazuko over by the arm, and did the same to her. He then put the leaves into his robe and pulled out new ones. "Sensei. . ." Anko said again. Unlike the last leaves, these didn't smell at all pleasant. Orochimaru put his hand on her head to keep her from going anywhere as he rubbed her face with them. Anko coughed.

"The scent of these herbs will hide your Konoha scent," he said. Once he had subjected Kazuko to the foul-smelling foliage, he switched herbs twice more, massaging the girls with them. "Now go and bathe," he told them when he was finished.

"Sensei—you mean we have to wash it all off now?" complained Anko. Had they gone through this for nothing?

"Let's do what he says, Anko," Kazuko urged her, pulling Anko along. The two of them went behind the bushes to a secluded pool and started to strip their clothes off.

"Orochimaru knows what he's doing," added Jiraiya before shooing his own apprentices over to Anko's sensei. Minato held his arms high and did everything he could to make it easier for Orochimaru to rub him down. But Ryoji clearly became more nervous the closer he got to Orochimaru, who coolly ignored the tense apprentice. Anko almost had to laugh as she watched from behind the bush. Ryoji was practically cringing when Orochimaru grabbed his collar and brushed the leaves over his face and bristly hair. He could be such a chicken sometimes; he wasn't like the other members of his team at all.

"Anko, come on. You're supposed to be in the water, not hiding behind a bush," Kazuko reminded her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Anko grumbled.

* * *

><p>The boys bathed, too, but Tsunade and Shizune didn't do so. Kazuko sensibly pointed out to Anko that it was fine for medics to smell of herbs.<p>

Anko was annoyed when, just after she had scrubbed herself so carefully, Tsunade used subtle strokes of her manicured fingers to smudge dirt over her and Kazuko's faces. Thus the effect of the twin "ragamuffins" was achieved.

Jiraiya was in charge of their wardrobe. He changed Ryoji's appearance entirely by fastening a scarf over his head. Anko watched in fascination as he worked on Orochimaru. She expected her sensei to resist, but he was quiet as Jiraiya handed him different articles of clothing to try on. They eventually found him a gray robe that made him seem less threatening than usual. When his black hair was pulled back from his face, he looked completely different. And Orochimaru wasn't the only one. Tsunade had removed the red paint from her nails and the lipstick from her lips. With her hair in its bun and her pink dress faded almost to white, she looked like a poor but level-headed young woman who had nothing at all to do with ninja. Shizune was wearing boys' clothes that neither suited her nor fitted her. Minato had on a nondescript shirt and pair of pants, as did Jiraiya. The Toad Sage had tucked his long white hair under a broad-brimmed hat, and Tsunade helped him paint over the red lines on his face. Anko hardly recognized any of them when they were finished.

"No one can guess who we really are now!" she crowed.

"Not by _looking_ at us, that's for sure," agreed Jiraiya. "But what about how we _act_?" His eyes were uncharacteristically shrewd as he looked at her. "What will you be doing when you get to the village, Anko?" Anko blinked: she hadn't thought about it.

"My sensei—"

"Wrong!" Jiraiya shouted forcefully. "You and Kazuko are going in alone together. Don't even look Orochimaru's way, and _never_ call him your 'sensei.' That goes for you, too, Kazuko. You've never even met me. I'm a complete stranger to you, understand? The only one here you know is Anko. You're 'sisters' now, so you'd better act like it.

"And Minato, you won't have anyone with you. Stay sharp. I'm counting on you to come back safely." Minato nodded once, serious. "Shizune and Ryoji, you'll be 'siblings,' the 'children' of Tsunade and Orochimaru—and don't look at me like that, Ryoji!" he yelled at his pupil, for Ryoji was looking more than a little afraid of the task he was expected to complete. Jiraiya took his shoulder. "I'm not asking you to be the ideal 'family.' But I _am_ asking you to act like Tsunade's your mother, Orochimaru's your father, Shizune's your sister. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Sensei," Ryoji replied at once.

"If you can't," Jiraiya pressed him, "you have to stay behind. You have to make your act _convincing_, or you endanger the mission. And worse, you endanger _yourself_."

"I-I can do it, Sensei," stammered Ryoji, eager to please. Jiraiya smiled despite himself.

"I know it won't be easy," he said softly to the boy, "especially with the team that you were assigned."

"And just what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Tsunade demanded to know from the background.

"But you have to do it," Jiraiya went on. "Pretend you're no longer Ogawa Ryoji. Think of yourself as a different person."

"You'll be fine, Ryoji," Tsunade reassured him. "Infiltration is what being a ninja is all about."

* * *

><p>Jiraiya drilled them on concepts and drilled concepts into them for the rest of the day. He gave everyone his own false history, detailing everything from unique skills to early childhood memories. He tested them all on this fake knowledge, and tried to trip them up by tricking them into saying things only a shinobi would know. He was especially hard on Ryoji, as he ran them through acting sequences to get them to behave as naturally as possible around one another. Tsunade and even Orochimaru easily slid into their roles, but it took the five <em>genin<em> a long time to get the hang of things.

"If you can't master this technique, how can you call yourselves ninja?" Jiraiya asked them at one point. "And Ryoji, stand tall like the shinobi you are." Ryoji had the constant nervousness about him of a boy who wanted nothing more than to stay unnoticed. "No one's going to believe your act if you're afraid all the time," Jiraiya chided him, exasperated. "This is standard stuff—going incognito is something you all studied at the Academy. It shouldn't be that hard for you."

"Jiraiya." Now it was Tsunade who sounded impatient. "Stop being such a dunce."

"What did I do _now_?" Jiraiya indignantly demanded to know. Tsunade frowned, bent close to him, and said in a low voice,

"It's not the façade he's afraid of. It's Orochimaru." Jiraiya turned to glance at Ryoji, obviously skeptical of what his _kunoichi_ teammate said. As if on cue, Orochimaru touched Ryoji's arm, and the apprentice jumped. Jiraiya rubbed his chin.

"Why didn't someone _tell_ me?" he complained.

"All this time, you didn't notice?" Tsunade seemed almost unsurprised. "I wondered why you put Ryoji with us."

"But he _has_ to go with you!" Jiraiya insisted. "What guise would I use if he came with me—uncle and nephew? It's pretty obvious I'm his teacher. When he's with you, he won't stand out."

"Maybe. At this rate, people might think that Orochimaru and I are kidnappers," Tsunade observed dryly. Ryoji proved her point as he unconsciously edged away from Orochimaru.

"He can do this," Jiraiya said, his voice firm. "I'll talk to him."

* * *

><p>Ryoji could never fully master the art of acting at ease around Orochimaru. Eventually he settled on neutrality, which for him was a significant accomplishment. The sensei could neither fault him nor praise him for this; so the day's training came to an end after dark with at least <em>some<em> progress. The Toad Sage was being a veritable taskmaster, a position he was quite adept at even though he was normally so easygoing. Anko was glad when they were allowed to bed down for the night and sleep.

The _Sannin_ sat together for a long time reviewing plans and tactics in the darkness. Before they went to sleep, Jiraiya scratched his white head and said to Orochimaru, "Look after Ryoji for me, will you? You know how he is. . ."

It was a mistake for him so say this aloud, for Ryoji was still awake. And Orochimaru's answer didn't ameliorate matters.

"Stop worrying so about your brats. This is war. And they're not helpless." His words may have been like a joke, but his voice was deadly serious. Anko had no way of knowing that Ryoji, lying next to her, was thorned with jealousy of her for her sensei.


	14. Reconnoitering

The next morning was a rush of last-minute instructions. Tsunade tweaked their disguises to make sure everyone looked just right. "Remember your fake names and your fake backgrounds," Jiraiya reminded them yet again. "Don't let anyone catch you unawares. Kazuko! Who are you?"

"Shimizu Masae, Sensei," answered Kazuko quickly.

"And you, Shizune?" Jiraiya pressed her.

"Hara Maho, Master," Shizune said timidly.

"Jiraiya," Orochimaru interrupted him. "Now is not the time for talk, but action." He stood atop the water while casting a string of _katas_ that was a blur to Anko. She let out a gasp when tiny snakes began to pour out of his clothes. They dropped from his sleeves straight into the river. They emerged like worms from his collar. Anko lost count of how many of them slithered down Orochimaru's body into the water and resurfaced to stare at their summoner. It was a sinister scene, but Jiraiya for one wasn't bothered. He grinned as he stepped onto the surface of the river and formed his own hand signs. I'll see your score and raise you. Kuchiyose no jutsu—art of summoning!" This time, the summoned creatures came _out_ of the water. Tadpoles and frogs poked their heads out around the sage's feet. Tsunade eyed the water where her teammates stood with dislike.

"My whole life, surrounded by toads and snakes. . ." she grumped to herself, and became the third ninja that day to form the _katas_ for the summoning.

"Look who's talking, Slug Queen," pointed out Jiraiya. Right on cue, from around Tsunade, slugs appeared on the grass. Anko didn't know why the three masters were summoning so many animals now, and Kazuko seemed to think the same thing.

"Why are you using the summoning jutsu, Sensei?" she asked. "What do you need the frogs for?"

"Toads," Jiraiya corrected her. "And we need them for infiltration." Tsunade raised her hands, and Anko admired the way all the little slugs snapped to attention.

"You're going to come at the Cloud Village from all different angles, to avoid arousing suspicion," she said loudly to the gathered creatures.

"And don't all of you go in at once—we don't want them to think it's an infestation," added Jiraiya.

"Burrow under the ground if necessary, but be sure that if you're seen, no one suspects you of working with shinobi. Be off, then," Tsunade commanded them. The toads and slugs disappeared, each with its own puff of smoke. But Orochimaru worked differently from the other two. He crouched down to whisper to the snakelets. They listened to his sibilant voice and, when he was finished, dove underwater and vanished. "There's nothing left to do," Tsunade remarked. "We'd better get going."

"Right," Jiraiya agreed, putting his hands together. "Kazuko and Anko, watch each other's backs. Ryoji, remember what I told you—_act your part_. And good grief, Orochimaru, stop being so . . ." Jiraiya groped for words while groping the air idly with his hand. "Stop being _yourself_, would you? You look like you walked out of the bingo books. And Minato—"

"Jiraiya," Tsunade broke in. Her voice was severe, yet her lips were pursed in a reluctant smile. "You've said all this already. Three times. Stop repeating yourself."

"Right," Jiraiya said again, sighing. "Be careful, Minato."

"I will, Sensei," Minato promised him.

"I'm _not_ your sensei!" Jiraiya barked for what must have been the thousandth time. Minato only smiled.

"Yes, Sensei."

* * *

><p>For Anko and Kazuko, coming at the village from the east, the trip took a few hours. She knew that Minato would simply enter from the south gate; it wouldn't take him long, because their team had been coming at it from the south, anyway. Orochimaru, Tsunade, Ryoji, and Shizune were approaching from the west; and Jiraiya was making a loop to come in from the north. His route was the longest: it made sense to send the only lone <em>jonin<em> the farthest way.

Anko and Kazuko got to climb the village wall—no easy feat, when they had to act like nothing more than mere orphan girls and couldn't use their ninja skills. After reaching the top, Anko lowered Kazuko as far as she could by the arm before letting her drop to the ground far below. The Ikeda girl landed with an "oof," but Anko was no longer paying attention. Her eyes had landed on a truly bizarre sight.

Orochimaru and Tsunade's team had already reached the village. The four of them were sitting at a small table in an outdoor restaurant. Tsunade was acting hardly older than Anko herself (or maybe a lot younger). She kept sticking out her lip in a pout and whining that the menu didn't have any good desserts. Finally, sulking like a child, she hung on Orochimaru's arm and played with the drinking straw in her soda. Orochimaru ignored her and kept calling for more wine. Anko found it impossible to tell if her sensei was genuinely drunk or not. He certainly appeared inebriated, laughing at odd times and slurring his words even as he snapped at Shizune when she begged him for a particularly expensive item. Ryoji stared into his drink, the picture of a boy who wanted very much to be somewhere else. Anko was awed at the masters' effortless alteration of their personalities. She resolved to be more inconspicuous during the rest of their stay.

* * *

><p>They slept in alleys or gutters, and they ate sparingly at the rations in Kazuko's backpack. During the day, they wandered through the town, playing Blind Man's Bluff or Follow the Leader, and intentionally lingering around the Lightning shinobi.<p>

Anko saw little of her sensei, Minato only once, and Jiraiya not at all. The Toad Sage and the Namikaze boy were reconnoitering the north end. Off and on, Anko saw Orochimaru and Tsunade with their "children," spending time in that same outdoor café. She assumed it meant that they had agreed to canvass the southeastern section. Either that, or they wanted to remain relatively close to Kazuko and Anko. But Anko was determined to prove them wrong. She wasn't a cadet, and she didn't need supervision.


	15. Clandestine Operations

"Tag!" Anko proclaimed, bringing her hand down on the head of another girl.

"Yuka! Are you gonna let the _foreigner_ get the better of you?" the oldest boy, Taichi, called.

"No way!" retorted Yuka. "I'll beat 'em, Rain or Grass or _wherever_ they're from."

"What's it to _you_?" Anko demanded to know. She shoved Taichi hard in the stomach, almost knocking him over. In retaliation, he hit her squarely in the face, wrestled her to the ground, and jumped on top of her.

"Mayumi!" Kazuko cried. "Don't be mad, Taichi—it's just that our parents were killed in the war, and Mayumi—"

"You think you're the only one?" snarled Taichi. "Shinobi from your _Takigakure_ murdered my mother and father! And you say you're 'refugees'? More like _spies_ if you ask me!"

"Leggo!" Anko howled as he grabbed her hair. She could have easily thrown him off by jabbing her knee into his chest. But her pre-arranged alias placed her into a victimized family of non-combatants, and she forced herself to act accordingly. "_You're_ the ones spying! Even the civilians know it!"

"What do _you_ care? Your allegiance is with Cloud now!" Taichi glared down at her. "Isn't it?"

" 'Course!" Anko retorted.

"Then if we want to sell information to Iwa to make up for the fact that our ninja aren't being hired, 'what's it to you'?"

"Taichi!" Yuka shouted in warning. Kumo shinobi had appeared on the scene, and one of them dragged Taichi off Anko while another helped Anko up.

"If you are indeed loyal to Kumogakure," said the shinobi who was holding Taichi, "you will cease to discuss our clandestine operations openly." He shook Taichi and dismissed him with a swat on the behind.

"Go on," grunted the ninja at Anko's side, giving her a push in the other direction.

"Yes, sir!" said Anko, pouring all the reverence and respect she could into her voice. She scampered away with Kazuko close behind. The urge to squeal with elation was nearly too great for her to quell. They had overheard crucial intel, confirmed by the Cloud ninja themselves!

Now all she had to do was pass on the information to her sensei.

* * *

><p>Anko crept closer to the café table, trying her best to look furtive and nonchalant at the same time. Kazuko had outlined a way for her to get Orochimaru's attention and get him by himself, too. All she had to do was—<p>

There—an opening! Anko slipped around behind him, smooth as a pickpocket. Slowly, she reached around him and into his robe. When her fingers closed around the fabric bag she was looking for, she yanked her hand out and ran. Orochimaru whirled to stare at her from somewhat unfocused eyes. His hair had come loose and hung, rank and unkempt, around his face. "Girl! Give it back!" he rasped. Anko grinned maliciously at him. _Come on_ . . . Orochimaru lurched to his feet. "Thief!" He ran at her, and Anko raced away. "Get back here!"

As soon as she could, she headed out of the town square, and from there out of the village. She ran through the trees, making sure to hold back enough so that Orochimaru was constantly on the verge of catching her. Orochimaru, in turn, lumbered along at a speed less than an eighth of what he was capable of. Just when Anko started breathing hard, she heard Orochimaru's voice behind her. "Enough." The tone of his voice brought her to a stop. They must be sufficiently far away from the village now. He came closer to her and grabbed the lapels of her coat so that she had trouble breathing. "What do you have to say for yourself?" he growled. Anko struggled.

"I—I'm sorry!" she gasped out. "Here! See? I'll g-give it back!" She dropped the money pouch at the feet of its rightful owner. "Just—give me a chance. I'll tell you . . ." Orochimaru pulled her right up next to his face, and Anko put her mouth to his ear. But before she could whisper her message, Orochimaru suddenly tightened his grip, choking her.

"What are you doing out here?" a voice demanded. Now Orochimaru held Anko away from himself, so she could see what was going on. It was the same three ninja that had broken up her fight with Taichi.

"She stole my money-pouch!" Orochimaru's explanation came out sounding like a whine. The ninjas' eyes flicked from Orochimaru to Anko to the pouch clutched in Orochimaru's hand.

"Well, you've obviously retrieved it," the head shinobi noted. "Know that we won't condone abuse of the village orphans."

Orochimaru made a scoffing hiss. "Fine." He let Anko go and pushed her away. "Go back to the village."

"Yes, Sensei," Anko answered obediently. Once the words fell from her lips, she froze.

She had always taken it for granted that if anyone were going to compromise their position, it would be Ryoji. Not her! But she couldn't help herself! It was the ninja, their headbands gleaming in the sun—such a familiar scene for her. It was Orochimaru's voice, which had switched from childish to commanding, just for an instant. The words had just come out!

"Did you hear what she said?" blurted one of the ninja.

"They're _shinobi_!" the leader burst out, signaling to his comrades to surround Anko and Orochimaru. "And the girl led him here—take her out!" Kunai knives filled the air before Anko knew what was happening. She ducked and shielded her head with her arms. There were hisses of flying kunai and clangs of metal on metal. A crippling pain bit into her shoulder. She screamed and opened her eyes.

Orochimaru stood next to her, holding a kunai horizontally in front of his face. He had a gouge on his chin and a kunai knife lodged in his back. "You went after the apprentice _first_?" Anko let out a long whimper without meaning to: from the knife embedded in her shoulder, heat and pain were starting to spread up her arm. It felt as though needles were jabbing into her, all over. Orochimaru bent down to scrutinize her wound. "Anko, stay still," he murmured to her. "These kunai are poison-tipped." She wanted to protest that she could fight as well as he, but she couldn't seem to form the words, and instead flopped over onto her side. Now he stood to face their enemies, whom he had already left unarmed and wounded. His voice was icy as he promised, "You will regret that." Anko recognized the five signs: boar, dog, bird, monkey, and sheep. The signs of summoning.

Snakes burst out of clouds of smoke. Not little ones this time—huge, sinuous serpents whose eyes were all fixed on Orochimaru. He pointed at the Cloud ninja and spoke a single word to the snakes. "Eat." While Anko watched, heaving for breath, the serpents wended their way forward. The biggest of them launched itself at the lead ninja, whose scream was quickly strangled. His terror-stricken face was the last thing Anko saw before her sensei lifted her up and pressed her to his chest. She was glad when he leapt into the trees and ran, leaving the grisly scene far behind them.

Dropping to the ground again, he pulled the kunai out of her arm. He pressed his lips against the gaping wound and started to suck the blood out. Anko understood what he was doing—removing what venom he could. Except, instead of spitting the blood onto the ground, he swallowed it. "Sensei . . ." Anko protested, struggling feebly but only causing him to hold her more tightly. He was still drinking. Anko reached up toward the wound on his face. "Sensei, you got hurt, too. . ."

"Lie _still_, Anko!" Orochimaru commanded her, so vehemently that she instantly went limp. "I am immune to toxins." Just one more attribute of her sensei that was new to her.

"Immunity . . ." he repeated in a whisper. "I can obtain it for you. It's the only way you'll live." This wasn't exactly a wise thing to say, as it brought Anko closer to impending panic. Still, Orochimaru remained calm as he took off his obi, tied it around her upper arm, and performed the _katas_ for the teleportation jutsu.

In an instant, they were transported across space. Anko's vision was blurring, so she couldn't tell exactly where they were; but there was shade and mosquitoes, and the air was muggy. She took it to be deep woods. Her sensei had her clasped against him. He was running again, and Anko writhed helplessly against his hold. Dizzy, nauseated, and disoriented, she took several seconds to notice that they had stopped. Orochimaru bent low in a bow, and because Anko was held against his stomach, she was obliged to bow, also. "Lord Manda," she heard him say. "My apprentice must sign the contract _now_. Time is short."

A powerful hiss of a voice answered. "You are aware of the price, Orochimaru . . ."

"And I will pay it!" Anko's sensei barked back. "Now, quickly!" Anko could sense the movement of something huge bending close to her.

"Do you agree to this, girl?" the thing asked. Anko was shivering madly now, though she felt hot and faint.

"Wh-whatever . . . my sensei . . . says," she choked out.

"As good an answer as any, I suppose," the creature sighed. "It will be as you wish, Orochimaru."

Anko heard the crinkling of parchment. Orochimaru's hand folded over hers. He cut her finger on his fang and moved her hand to write the characters of her name with her blood. Then he made a gash with a kunai knife over her previous kunai wound so that blood spattered everywhere. Anko shrieked at the top of her voice, and continued to sob as the tail of the snake creature wound around the blood-soaked arm.

"We are bound." The mighty serpent's voice was like the invocation of a spell, for abruptly all the symptoms Anko had been suffering were gone, but for the pain. For a few seconds, only Anko's shaky breaths broke the silence. Orochimaru bowed and backed away from the giant snake. The linen strips around his shins, he unwrapped and rewound over Anko's injury, now grown all the more lethal. Then he tied Anko to his torso and was on the move again. He reached up into the trees and allowed two snakes to twine down his arms. Putting his hands together into the _hitsuji_ hand sign to focus, he vanished from the spot where he was and appeared again at the site of their previous skirmish. "You must deliver a message to Tsunade for me," he told the first snake. "Tell her that our cover has been blown, and we have to retreat." To the snake on his right shoulder, he ordered, "Tell Jiraiya that we've been found out, and our team is leaving the village. If he wishes to send Minato with us, have him send his apprentice by way of the west gate." The two snakes dropped from his elbows and slithered away like lightning. But one of their messages became obsolete when Tsunade came into the clearing, leading Ryoji and Shizune by the hand. "Orochimaru!" she cried at the sight of them. "What happened? Did you battle?"

"The Lightning shinobi discovered that we're ninja. Our exact identities may still be unknown, however." Orochimaru laid Anko down and started undressing her. "I need your help. Anko has lost blood."

"Blood?" Tsunade fell to the ground as she saw Anko's wound. Orochimaru got up, stalked over to Tsunade, and grabbed the front of her robes. He dragged his teammate to her feet and slammed her against a tree trunk. "I grow _weary_ of your childish fears!" he snarled into her face. "If you can't give your team medical help, then _what are you here for_?"

Shizune rushed forward with her hand outstretched. "Master Orochimaru, please don't—!"

"Shizune," Tsunade said with difficulty. "He's right." She knocked Orochimaru's wrist with her knuckles, breaking his chokehold. Suddenly businesslike, she straightened her robe as she stepped over to Anko, who was fighting vertigo again. Tsunade's hand shook once as she probed the gash, but her voice gave nothing away. "This slash looks like _your_ work, Orochimaru."

"She was poisoned," Orochimaru said in his defense, edgy.

"_Poisoned_?" Tsunade dropped the satchel she had been in the process of opening, snatched it back up, and began pawing through it frantically. "Why didn't you say so _before_? She needs to be given an antidote, and for me to concoct one I'll need a sample—"

"The venom is of no concern to her anymore," Orochimaru cut in. "The effects were nullified. All you have to worry about is the blood loss." Tsunade blinked her pretty brown eyes and looked up at her teammate with obvious skepticism.

"It's true, Sensei," Shizune spoke up. "There's no discoloration or swelling."

"Hmmm . . ." the master medic murmured. She shoved the heel of her hand against Anko's shoulder and motioned for Shizune to bring her a thread and needle. "Anko? Do you feel all right?" She squinted rather suspiciously down at Orochimaru's apprentice. Why was the girl smiling?


	16. Get Going

Jiraiya ambled up to the Kumo intelligence headquarters as if he belonged there. Because, as far as anyone else was aware, he did. There was a familiar-looking young guard on duty—one with hair of bright gold poking out from under his hat and _hitai-ate_ cloud headband. "Password, sir?" the boy asked. He looked nervous, but in a determined way.

"You've got some nerve, greenhorn," Jiraiya drawled. "Drawing your kunai on your superior?"

"We can't take chances in this war, sir," Minato answered, bowing but not sheathing his knife. "Password?"

"Yeah, I'll give you the password," growled Jiraiya. He yanked Minato close to him by the lock of hair on the side of his head. It only took him three seconds to whisper the phrase into his apprentice's ear. "Now, get going," he commanded the boy in a normal voice. "Your replacement is here." Another Lightning _genin_ came up to them, shooting Jiraiya a deferential glance before stationing himself at the doorway.

Minato followed the directions that had been whispered to him. Walking at a brisk pace—but not too quickly—he left the village through the western gate.

* * *

><p>Kazuko left, too, that evening. She climbed the outer wall, giggling like a child in a game of keep-away. When the village was out of sight in the trees, a small snake emerged from the ground in front of her feet. It slithered before her for hours, leading her the long way around, all the way to where two of the three masters waited.<p>

* * *

><p>Tsunade sat next to Anko with Shizune, running her hands along the bandaging she had redone. The blood transfusion performed on Anko had been accomplished in conjunction with the only cell member available who had her same blood type: Orochimaru. Anko had been certain that he would agree to donate his blood only grudgingly, but he quickly offered to do it once Tsunade informed him of their matching blood types. What was more, he hadn't left Anko's side since Tsunade had begun medical treatment. Even now, his eyes were on her. That was why Anko was so happy, even with the pain that made her arm feel like deadweight. Orochimaru hadn't lost the disdain in his eyes when he looked at her—not since she had sent the Lightning forest up in flames. But now it was gone . . . and there was something different in his eyes.<p>

He kept watch while she slept. Tsunade, who was sitting vigil, chided him, "You should rest, too. You need to recover your strength." Orochimaru didn't answer and made no move to lie down. Tsunade looked sideways at him, then remarked, "What's gotten into you? I'd almost think you were _worried_ about Anko."

Still Orochimaru said nothing.


	17. Time for Them to Leave

When Anko woke up the next morning, she found Orochimaru sleeping with his arm draped over her. She didn't want to ruin the moment, but his eyes opened soon after hers did. He pushed himself to his feet. Minato and Kazuko were sprawled nearby; Anko concluded that they must have arrived in the night. As the rest of the ninja stirred themselves, Kazuko was quick to notice the presence of her teammate. "Minato!" she whispered in delight. The previously mentioned _genin_ sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Where's Jiraiya-sensei?" Kazuko wanted to know.

"He stayed in Kumogakure," Minato mumbled through a yawn.

"What?" Kazuko was confused. "Master Orochimaru? Why isn't Jiraiya-sensei here? Are we waiting for him?"

"Jiraiya won't be joining us," Tsunade said in answer to her question. "He's going to remain with the Cloud ninja to confirm what you and Anko already told us."

"But none of the rest of us are staying," Kazuko pointed out.

"Because our cover is blown," Tsunade explained patiently. "But Jiraiya never blows his cover." When she saw Kazuko's pensive facial expression, she continued, "He might've arrived at the same time we did, but he had nothing to do with us; so they won't suspect him at all." Kazuko didn't seem convinced, but the masters weren't giving her time to worry. It was time for them to leave. They packed their meager goods and departed, Orochimaru carrying Anko, Tsunade carrying Shizune, and Jiraiya's students running single file after Orochimaru.

* * *

><p>That night, as though reading his <em>kunoichi's<em> thoughts from afar, Jiraiya sent a message. A medium-sized toad appeared out of a smoke cloud while they were getting ready to sleep.

"I bring a message from Lord Jiraiya, Mount Moboku Toad Sage!" the creature proclaimed. Tsunade and Orochimaru both rolled their eyes, but listened silently as Jiraiya's missive relayed his news. "'I have infiltrated their headquarters and am now part of a four-man cell. We're traveling to Iwagakure on a covert mission. My assumption is that we're going to sell intel to Earth, but I haven't been able to confirm it yet. More data to follow. We only have two days to go.'" Then the toad turned to face Jiraiya's _kunoichi_ apprentice. "'My students: don't worry about me; I will be fine. Be good while I'm away.'" Kazuko, who had obviously been hoping for a message like this, smiled with delight and bowed to the toad.

"Yes, sir! Thank you!" The toad bowed with a flourish and left them in a puff of smoke.

"He doesn't have much time left," noted Orochimaru.

"He'll do it, don't worry," Tsunade replied with confidence. "All we have to focus on is meeting him at the rendezvous point."

"Where is that, Master?" Ryoji asked without thinking. To no one's surprise, Orochimaru shook his head, and Tsunade answered, "You're not allowed to know that, Ryoji. It shouldn't take us too long to get there, though." Anko remembered her sensei's words to her on their first night of the mission and was thankful that the _kunoichi_ was being intentionally vague.

She was also thankful that their journey wasn't a long one. After all, as Jiraiya had reminded them via messenger toad, they only had two days to go.


	18. Smell and Taste

The absence of Jiraiya was felt by the entire cell—well, all the apprentices, at least. Anko found that Orochimaru and Tsunade were hard to read; they seemed neither pleased nor disquieted that their teammate wasn't with them. They did seem to talk less, though. Minato, Kazuko, and Ryoji were noticeably subdued when their sensei was gone. Once, Anko overheard them whispering to one another, wondering aloud where their teacher was, worrying aloud for his safety while he was living amongst enemies. Anko thought that, without Jiraiya there, the seven of them had lost something integral to them. It was somehow more boring after he left. The children fought amongst themselves more, and without Jiraiya there to shout them down, it fell to Tsunade to lecture them, or Orochimaru to snap at them. He had taken over leading the cell, as well. Anko noticed that their team rarely got lost or made mistakes while her sensei was leading the way. He was much more acute than Jiraiya. But there was also less joking and smiling when the Toad Sage wasn't among them.

Orochimaru and Tsunade led the way, straight back the way they'd come. They ran through the territories of Mist and Steam once again. No one tried to stop them in their travel: in fact, they saw not a single ninja. It could have been due to the fact that they were journeying so _fast_—forever running feverishly, with no time to rest and little time to sleep. But from the glimpses of the scenery she saw on the fly, Anko thought that the lands' shinobi must be centralizing themselves for battle rather than spreading their numbers thin.

Anko found herself tiring more often—she could only run for so long, understandably. Still, she was determined not to be like Shizune: the medic's apprentice spent at least half of her time riding on Tsunade's back. In contrast, Anko taught herself how to step within footsteps, like Jiraiya's gang did. After tripping, mis-stepping, and goofing up too many times to count while she squinted to see the subtle indentations of footprints in the grass, she finally got good at it. By focusing as hard as she could, she could always step in the right places, even when their path took them over rock.

She was tailing her sensei, breathing hard, when her nose caught a horrible scent. It hung in the air with such an overpowering reek that she didn't know how she hadn't smelled it miles ago. Was someone butchering deer? "Orochimaru? What is it?" Tsunade called. Her face was contorted in aversion, but her eyes were wide as she searched for the source of the smell.

Orochimaru had come to a sudden halt. Anko, however, didn't have the ability of the _jonin_ to stop so completely from a dead run. She did the only thing she could think of to avoid crashing into him: she altered her path slightly to pass him as she slowed. He reached out to the side and grabbed her, pulled her close to him. His hand went over her mouth. Now Anko knew why. She screamed a long scream, but all that came out was a shrill whine.

There were ninja in the trees.

Dead ninja.

Their bodies were hung grotesquely—intentionally—from the branches.

The mutilated corpses of shinobi.

Shinobi from Konohagakure.

"No. . ." Tsunade croaked from nearby, or far away. Anko heard the medic shinobi fall to the ground, limp. She could hear more than one apprentice start to vomit. It was impressive how much she could hear, with her own heaving breath so loud in her head. She couldn't get enough air while Orochimaru was smothering her. Maybe that was why she felt light-headed. . .

She turned on instinct and buried her face against his waist, unable to stop shaking with more than just sobs. Her sensei was speaking again. His voice slid along, calm and flat. Tsunade's answered; she was opposed to what he was saying. He spoke again. His voice didn't change, but hers rose. "Do you actually intend to _defile_ the _dead_?" she cried in disbelief.

Supported by his arm, Anko dimly listened to her sensei's cool reply: "We have to know." He hitched Anko higher up and, to her shock, walked right up to the most macabre body in the group.

"S-Sen-s-sei," she tried to protest through chattering teeth.

"Anko, do you know that genjutsu has only one weakness?" he asked her. "It can fool the eye and the ear, even the senses of smell and touch. But it cannot fool the sense of taste." He reached out with his finger and swiped it along a trickling rivulet of blood running down the dead ninja's side. Anko could neither speak nor take her eyes off him as he licked the red liquid off his finger, slowly rolling it around in his mouth. Someone was vomiting behind her again. It might've been Minato. But she couldn't throw up. She couldn't do anything. Orochimaru nodded his head briefly and let her down to the ground so that she was standing atop his feet. "Now, do the same," he ordered her.

Anko's breath caught painfully in her throat. "Sensei?" she quavered.

* * *

><p><em>It was the first thing he ever taught her. When she left the Academy for the last time, following her new sensei, he turned and stared at her. In a slow, measured movement, he took a kunai from his leg pouch. Still looking into her eyes, he cut his palm open, brought his hand to his mouth, and licked the blood away. "Do you know what blood tastes like?" he murmured. He sounded almost as though he were making conversation. Watching in fascination while a drop of blood quivered at the junction of his lips, Anko nearly forgot to answer. She roused herself.<em>

"_I-I . . . I bit my tongue once," she ventured. Her new sensei reached out and took her hand. Turning it over, he looked at her skin—pale, though not nearly so much as his. His eyes fell on her thumb, and he took it in his fingers and cut it with the kunai, right over the scar she had long since acquired in jutsu classes. Blood welled up. He moved her hand so that the incised finger went into her mouth. She sucked on her thumb like a child for just a moment, then pulled it out and held the blood uncomfortably in her mouth. _

"_What does it taste like?" he pressed her._

"_Salt," Anko replied in a low voice, awkward since she was trying to talk around the contents of her mouth. "Metal."_

_Orochimaru grasped her hand again and licked the wound—no, not licked; he moved his tongue in and out, pressing it briefly against the cut each time. Sort of like a snake. And then he held the flat of his hand right in front of her face, taking her by surprise. The blood still glistened there, and she thought she knew what he meant for her to do. She swallowed hard and succeeded in sending her mouthful of blood on its way to her stomach. "Um," she mumbled. But she couldn't refuse any request from her teacher, even an implicit one. She had waited so **long** to have a sensei of her own. Gritting her teeth, she steeled her nerves and let her tongue peek out, not unlike he had just been doing. She touched it—just barely—against his self-inflicted wound. Her eyes were shut tight, determined to shut out sight, if they couldn't shut out taste. But her sensei's blood tasted the same as hers._

_Strange._

"_Remember it," Orochimaru said to her. "It is the taste of your shinobi world."_

* * *

><p>Orochimaru was eyeing her still. She hadn't made a move. "Anko . . ." he breathed. The simple timbre of his voice—the low threat within—obligated her to obey. Quickly, she reached out before she could lose her nerve. She touched the blood wetting the ribs of what had once been her comrade. Flies moved out of the way just enough to avoid her finger. Anko brought her madly-shaking hand to her mouth. Her breath couldn't seem to come quickly enough to satisfy her, and it was almost beyond her ability not to gag. She shoved her finger into her mouth and yanked it out again, as though doing it quickly might change the fact that she was doing it.<p>

When the blood hit her tongue, it was finally too much for her. Clawing her way free of Orochimaru's arm, she threw up on the ground. Her vomit fell at the feet of the shinobi who was only one of the many who had given his life in this war. "It's real," Orochimaru announced softly. "No genjutsu was used."

"I'll kill them," vowed Anko, still white-faced and weak. Earth shinobi were the culprits, she was certain. What other ninja would be so impudent as to invade another's land and turn it into a battleground? Or so vicious that they would murder the enemy cell they happened upon? Or so inhumane that they _displayed_ the corpses? She wiped her mouth on her coat sleeve. "I'll kill them all for what they did!"

"Anko," sighed Tsunade. She may have meant to sound comforting, but her voice was so heavy and morose that it had the opposite effect. Orochimaru was smiling quietly. He pressed a hand to his student's head and spoke a word that she'd never heard him say:

"Good."

They couldn't even bury their dead. The men who had made such noble sacrifices were forced to remain strung up in the trees, where the crows and flies could profane them.


	19. First Ever Battle

It would be their last night camping far from home, assuming all went well. "We'll meet up with Jiraiya soon," Tsunade told them all, particularly for the benefit of the sage's students. Anko didn't know what to expect, but she wasn't the only one who felt a sense that something was about to happen. The tenseness hung over the camp. Ryoji and Minato were practice-sparring bare-handed. Shizune quietly organized the supplies in her pack. She and Tsunade were the only ones who had tools that they could attack with: the team had never returned to uncover their buried kunai and shuriken. Her lack of arms made Anko anxious. She fidgeted without meaning to as her sensei took off part of her bandaging to check the wound. He stroked the row of stitching while Tsunade looked on. "She may have a scar remaining," the medical ninja informed them. Anko was happy when she heard this—every cadet dreamed of earning battle scars. Orochimaru's mouth tightened with displeasure, but he didn't comment as he wrapped her shoulder up again.

The sun had barely set before Tsunade told them to go to bed. They must be getting up early the next morning. Anko wondered for the hundredth time what was to come, and she had trouble sleeping that night.

* * *

><p>They got up and set out as dawn was starting to turn the world mauve. Tsunade and Orochimaru were moving so fast that the apprentices nearly exhausted themselves just keeping up. When they got near a valley that was nestled within the junction of several hills, the two sensei stopped cold. Both of them turned to catch the feverishly-racing apprentices against their arms except for Minato, who could stop in time. They all waited. Anko, trying to control her overly loud breathing, heard a single <em>ribbet<em> of a bullfrog. Before the sound had died away, four ninja came bounding through the marsh. Orochimaru and Tsunade leapt out to meet them. Taken by surprise but quick to follow as usual, the apprentices jumped down, too. It was a stand-off.

"You won't be selling any of our secrets today," Tsunade growled. The Cloud team to whom she was speaking chose not to cast any more suspicion over themselves, and said nothing. The opposing shinobi glared at one another, waiting for the first move.

"Do as you like," Orochimaru said to the students around him, "but this ninja is mine." His eyes were on the tall Kumo shinobi in the back of the group. All eleven of them leaped at each other suddenly, and the skirmish was underway.

It was Anko's first-ever battle—and she was unarmed. Understandably, she was terrified, even though their team outnumbered the Cloud team almost two to one. There were no clangs of metal against metal, only small _whooshes_ of air caused by rapid movement.

It was a deadly dance. Orochimaru and Tsunade were masters of the trade, making the Kumo cell look like amateurs by comparison. Minato, too, fought without apparent difficulty. The other apprentices didn't have it so easy. How could any of them actually attack, Anko asked herself, without weapons? She was always shielding her face with her forearms, wondering how to proceed.

Tsunade and Orochimaru were never far away. Often they stepped away from their own battles to strike brief hits for Anko, Ryoji, or whoever was having a particularly hard time. Anko felt like a kitten whose mother brought home wounded prey. Unable to kill it yet, the kitten would merely play with the unfortunate animal, learning how to use his teeth and claws. The masters were just letting her play at being a ninja.

And the fight ended when a sword sank deep into the belly of the shinobi whom Anko had been dodging. Orochimaru had placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned over her head to make the strike. There was an overly-long serpent coming out of his mouth, and a long blade coming out of the serpent's mouth. Anko envied her sensei—no matter the situation, _he_ wielded weapons. And Minato, with his effortless talent, didn't help matters, either. But she had no time to sulk.

"Master!" Ryoji's cry came unexpectedly. "Your opponent is still . . ." He stopped short of finishing the sentence. His balled fists looked so bizarre: they weren't gripping kunai or shuriken, they were just . . . fists. Tense yet brave, he faced the taller Kumo ninja that Orochimaru had claimed for himself earlier. The man was neither dead nor wounded in any way. Anko couldn't see how her sensei could make such an obvious error. And the masters made no move to jump their enemy; they merely looked at Ryoji as though he'd said something strange.

"What?" the Cloud shinobi said. "Ryoji! You mean you don't recognize me?" Kazuko and Ryoji were obviously at a loss, much the same as Anko. By contrast, Minato seemed to know what was going on.

"He's using senjutsu genjutsu," the apprentice informed his comrades, smiling at his own joke. Before their mystified eyes, he jumped up into the ninja's arms. "We missed you," he mumbled. Then smoke clarified the situation, as Jiraiya the Toad Sage dropped his illusion and appeared before them.

"_Sensei!_" Kazuko screeched. She and Ryoji threw themselves at him, and Jiraiya laughed in his loud way. It was a tight fit with all three of them in his arms. He patted Ryoji on the head, chucked Minato under the chin, and ruffled Kazuko's hair.

"Hey, come on—you weren't _worried_ about me, now, were you?" he challenged them. The three laughed and replied in unison,

"Of course not, Sensei!"

"And you?" Jiraiya's tone changed, became more accusing. He was looking at his cell mates now. "Did _you_ doubt me?"

"Can I then assume that you have our intel?" Orochimaru asked, not answering his teammate's question.

"Of course I got it!" Jiraiya burst out. "I worked my way onto the Cloud team the first day I got there. We were on our way to meet with some Earth _jonin_ and spill Konoha secrets. I gave you the location of a point along our trail days in advance—Team Konoha's rendezvous point. That way, I'd be able to guarantee that the Cloud cell would never meet up with their Stones customers." The sage's eyes rested for a moment on the three deceased ninja that, for the past few days, had been his comrades. He looked back up at his cell mates. "I filled in Lord Third the same time I sent Gamakichi to you."

"Which means, if we keep following the trail _you_ were on, we'll find the Iwa cell that was so eager for our secrets," finished Tsunade.

"And there'll be a fight there to meet us," Jiraiya informed them. "The Earth shinobi set up an intel outpost on the far border of Steam. Word has it they're planning to invade and take the country for themselves." His eyes glinted. "We've gotten the intelligence Konoha required. Now we're the back-up Yu needs."

"Let's go," Tsunade said, her face dark. Anko's heart pounded. Their mission's end—and climax—had come.


	20. Onslaught

They stood on a precipice overlooking a battlefield—a battlefield in every sense of the word. There were dozens, scores, perhaps hundreds of ninja. Stone and Steam surged up and clashed against one another. Blood and death were rampant. "Wait here, everyone," Jiraiya ordered as he slung his backpack down to the ground.

"Sensei, we're not fighting?" Minato asked quietly.

"Not right now," Jiraiya answered. Anko, dismayed, turned to her teacher. She had hoped that Jiraiya's command was only for his three apprentices. But Orochimaru and Tsunade, too, were moving away from them.

"Sensei?" she pleaded. "Don't we get to fight, too?"

"Stay here, Anko," Orochimaru told her without turning.

"But they _killed_ Konoha shinobi and—and—" Anko stammered, unable to put the gore into words. Jiraiya gave them all a wide grin.

"Hey, didn't you hear what I said? You're not fighting _right now_. Give us a few minutes' head start, and we'll call you."

"It won't take long," Tsunade promised them. The tone of her voice was strange, low and threatening.

Orochimaru's smile was a sinister one. "We're going to thin the ranks."

Anko watched them as they strode towards the battle. There were no subterfuges or sneak attacks this time. They simply walked right in.

Ninja fell back before their onslaught. Not that there was no resistance—the enemy shinobi put everything they had into stopping the _Sannin_'s advance. It was just that the three of them were so incontrovertibly superior that opponents seemed to melt away before them.

"Wow," Minato breathed quietly. "Our sensei are _awesome_." The other _genin_ nodded in silent agreement. The five of them were holding their breath as they watched. Jiraiya leaped and soared from ninja to ninja, striking each one mightily in the chest. His face looked pockmarked and strange. Once or twice, the face of the shinobi he attacked would bulge and stretch in a similar way. Then the ninja seemed to vanish into his own clothes. Orochimaru never moved from his place at the center of the action. His neck, or tongue, could elongate and and pick off ninja many meters away. By tooth or sword, they all fell before him. Tsunade's was the most stunning attack: she hauled back and struck the ground with a punch potent enough to shake the world. Earthquakes spread out from her hand like waves from a stone tossed into a pool.

Then ninja appeared out of nowhere around the apprentices. They attacked before the children had time to think. Anko threw herself out of the way of a kunai thrust and did the first thing that popped into her mind. With shaking hands, she made five _katas_ and screeched, "Kuchiyose no jutsu! The art of summoning!"

And nothing happened. Was it because she had stumbled through her hand signs and words? No . . . she _had_ gotten them right. Hadn't she?

"Good idea!" Minato panted from nearby. "Let's summon!" While dashing back and forth to avoid his enemies' lunges, he formed the same _katas_ Anko had and shouted the same words: "Kuchiyose no jutsu! The art of summoning!"

Except with _him_, smoke burst out instantly, and made it impossible to see for the moment. "We need your help now—Mr. Gamakin!" Minato shouted. His voice was half full of the triumph of a boy whose jutsu was flawless, and half full of the desperation of a _genin_ who had a life-or-death battle suddenly thrust upon him. Anko didn't know who Mr. Gamakin was, but she soon found out. A huge frog (toad?) soared into the air, propelled upward by his leap. He was holding Minato, Kazuko, and Ryoji in his front legs. He alighted on a tree branch like a highly ungainly bird. Anko could see Minato gesturing to the giant creature, although she couldn't pick up his words. The frog/toad's tongue launched itself down into the fight, and at first Anko thought Minato was using the frog the same way Orochimaru was wielding his sword. But the tongue bypassed all enemies and snagged Shizune, pulling her up and away from the danger. Anko was left alone for all of five desperate seconds before the tongue came down and stuck itself to her chest. She was too relieved to be grossed out as it yanked her upwards. Deposited on a tree branch in a flurry, Anko had barely caught her balance when Minato stepped to the fore. He had his arms spread out and was backing up, edging the rest of them back.

"Listen to me!" Minato yelled down to the shinobi below. "I've been ordered not to fight. And I don't want to disobey orders." He raised his voice even more. "But if you try to hurt my friends, I will attack to kill!" Staring at the twelve-year-old who was somehow very mature now, Anko marveled at how he had changed so. No wonder Kazuko was looking at him with something close to devotion.

The men below hesitated. Minato's words had given them pause. But Anko never found out if they would have abandoned the fight altogether. Jiraiya appeared then, right in the midst of the ninja who had attacked his students. As though contradicting all present circumstances, he put his arms around the shoulders of the ninja on either side of him. "Great job, Minato!" he bellowed up. "Now, why don't you come down and join the fight?" So saying, he tightened his grip around the shinobi's necks, throwing himself down and pulling them with him.

Minato grinned. "Yes, Sensei!" At his words, Gamakin launched himself down to the earth below, and Minato rode him into battle. Anko and the rest scrambled down the tree and rushed forward. Jiraiya was wrestling in a weaponless scuffle with his two opponents. Mr. Gamakin was leaping up and down, tackling shinobi and kicking down others. Minato threw kunai knives from his perch behind the toad's head. Despite Gamakin's erratic movements, all his kunai were right on target. Little by little, Tsunade and Orochimaru worked their way over to them. All the shinobi present seemed to eventually converge on the single clearing. The battle grew more heated.

Perhaps it was that very heat of battle—or maybe it was her mounting fear, or just luck—but when Anko tried for the summoning jutsu again, it worked. A _snake_ the length and breadth of her arm appeared below her trembling hands. She stared at the creature, hardly able to believe she'd actually done it. The snake stared back at her. Then the urgency of the battle returned to her and she cried, "Attack!" The snake didn't seem to see her gesturing hand, nor did he remove his motionless eyes from her. Poking the air with his forked tongue, he slid closer to her feet. "Hurry!" Anko added, her voice rising. The ninja who had been fighting Anko rapidly tired of waiting and brought his kunai into a striking position. But the summoned snake seemed to want the first lunge: he struck at Anko's leg. His fangs were just about to stab into her when his angular head stopped cold: Orochimaru had grabbed his tail. He lifted the snake up and hissed at it irately, in what might or might not have been words. The little serpent dropped from his hand in a hurry and melted into the warring factions.

"It is not so simple to summon the snakes, Anko," her teacher told her. Picking up kunai knives strewn around fallen warriors, he pressed them into her hands. Anko lowered her head and nodded. She was angry with herself that she couldn't begin to live up to his expectations. On the other hand, she could tell from the way he spoke that he was planning to instruct her in the kuchiyose no jutsu later. She bit her lip and smiled despite herself.

Shizune was a surprisingly good fighter, possibly second only to Minato. Her moves were quick and graceful. What her weapon-wielding lacked in precision, it made up for in swiftness. But she was susceptible to blows: whenever she was hit, she would go down hard and struggled to recover. That was likely why Tsunade was never far from her side.

Kazuko was quick and light on her feet, too. She wove her way through the fighters expertly. She was good at dodging them; however, she wasn't as good at attacking. Her fighting style seemed to consist of nothing but evasive moves.

Ryoji had a solid stance. When he planted his feet, it was difficult for enemies to make him move. Even when they struck him, he slid along the grass rather than toppling over. Actually, Jiraiya's team was quite talented, in Anko's opinion. She suspected Jiraiya was again favoring Minato, though. He stayed close to Kazuko and, not long after his apprentices had joined the fight, gave Ryoji a task that more or less separated the Ogawa boy from hand-to-hand combat. "Ryoji!" the Toad Sage bellowed over the sound of fist hitting flesh and kunai hitting shuriken. "I need you to capture _alive_ every toad you see nearby! Don't hurt them; just make sure they can't get away!"

"Yes, Sensei!" Ryoji answered right away. He ducked a punch, rolled out of the way of his opponent, and scrambled away to do his master's bidding.

The battle didn't last much longer. Every Stones shinobi in the area stayed and fought bravely to the end, but the Legendary Three slaughtered them all. Anko reached above her head to slam her fists over and over into the stomach of her opponent, the only ninja left. He grabbed her and body-slammed her into the ground, but Anko still managed to recover and slash him with a shuriken before he could slash her. The man cried out and fell back, grasping at his chest wound. Panting, Anko raised her hand, still clutching the shuriken, into the air. Victory was hers, but for some reason she couldn't smile. The man was mortally wounded. She had never done that before. And the shuriken dripped blood that wasn't hers.

The masters gathered around while the doomed shinobi groaned. Jiraiya looked down at him and said in a flat voice, "You have to finish the job, Anko. As long as he lives, this ninja is a threat." Almost casually, he tossed a kunai on a deadly trajectory with a flick of his wrist. It hit the man between the shoulders. He screamed and closed his eyes. His head dropped to the ground. Minato, Anko, and Kazuko looked on with less innocence than they had once had.

Orochimaru snorted. "Practice what you preach, Jiraiya," he sneered. "The man still breathes." He raised his foot and planted the sole of his sandal on the handle of the knife embedded in the dying man's back. With one thrust of his foot, he drove it deep into his victim, beyond all hope of removal. Shizune let out a whimper; Minato gasped; Kazuko shut her eyes tightly; and Anko shivered.

Jiraiya let out his breath and walked over to his other student. Ryoji was bent double, trying to keep four toads from hopping away. Desperate to escape, they kept him on his toes just trying to keep up with them all. Whenever he grabbed one trying to sneak off, another would hop away at the exact same time. Ryoji was like a human sheepdog herding toads.

"Good job, Ryoji." Jiraiya's heavy voice minimized his words of praise. He pulled a small satchel out of his backpack and simply stuffed the toads into it. No one else said a word as they left.


	21. Mistakes

That afternoon, Anko heard Ryoji's and Minato's voices raised in anger for the first time. While they were now back on Konoha territory, the mission seemed to have gotten under the boys' skin, particularly Ryoji.

"You never said you could summon the toad!" Ryoji shouted at his cell mate.

"I didn't think I had to give you every detail of my training routine," Minato retorted edgily.

"You never said you could summon at _all_! What else have you been learning behind my back?"

"Toad summoning is only compatible with certain individuals," Minato defended himself.

"_Perfect_ individuals, you mean? People like me aren't _good_ enough?" asked Ryoji bitterly.

"I didn't _ask_ to be better than you!" protested Minato, his voice rising with exasperation. Ryoji was obviously wounded by the remark, and Minato seemed to realize he'd put his foot in his mouth. There was an awkward pause as Minato's shoulders slumped and Ryoji's eyes narrowed even more than usual. When he spoke again, Minato's tone had become conciliating, earnest. "But I _am_." He stared intensely at Ryoji as though he could make him understand. "I wanted to keep you safe. That's all."

"No one asked for your help," Ryoji muttered, avoiding his teammate's eyes.

Jiraiya stalked up to them, looking not at all happy. "That's _enough_," he warned the boys. "Just because you're tired from the mission, that doesn't give you the right to fight with each other." He looked at them both and sighed. "We're moving on soon. Get your stuff together." The apprentices nodded and moved to refasten sandals, retie obis, and shoulder their knapsacks once again. As the others began moving, Jiraiya took Ryoji's arm and waved the rest of them onward. "You go ahead. We'll catch up." When master and apprentice were alone, Jiraiya folded his arms, leaned against a tree, and eyed Ryoji. "What was that all about?" he pressed the _genin_. "Starting a fight with Minato after he protected you in battle? I expected better of you, Ryoji."

Ryoji shifted his weight and ducked his head. Then he said in a barely audible voice, "Why is it always Minato, Sensei?" He didn't see his master's eyes go wide, or Jiraiya's mouth opening without a sound.

* * *

><p><em>Orochimaru wore a smirk, and Tsunade had that lopsided grin of hers that was always there whenever Jiraiya messed something up. Sarutobi Hiruzen glared over folded arms down at his least promising pupil. But how could an average <em>genin_ compete with the top student at the Konoha Ninja Academy? Couldn't Sarutobi-sensei see that? Boiling over with frustration, Jiraiya balled his hands up and shouted, "Why is it always Orochimaru, Sensei? Why __**always**__ Orochimaru?"_

* * *

><p>Jiraiya let out his bated breath in a kind of groaning sigh. He scratched the back of his head and stared up through the broken pattern of light through the canopy. Finally, he moved in front of Ryoji and squatted down so that they were face-to-face. "Minato is a very skilled ninja, Ryoji. He always has been. I taught him the art of summoning toads because he was more than capable of doing it." He paused. "You'll probably never be able to learn senjutsu. You don't have the chakra level necessary for it." Ryoji's face became closed as he listened to his master's blunt appraisal. Jiraiya's mouth lifted into a half-smile as he went on. "You know, I worry about Kazuko, and especially about you. I can give Minato almost any task, and it never causes him much trouble. It's not like that with you, though. I have to remember that you and Kazuko need protecting." He shut his eyes for a moment, his smile rueful. "You're not cadets anymore—I know. You don't need baby-sitting all the time." His eyes had a faraway gaze. ". . . But sometimes I forget to treat you like you are—like you deserve to be treated. And I just end up making things worse." Ryoji's eyes had gone wide by this time. His stare both begged his master to say more and pleaded with him to stop talking. "Forgive me." Jiraiya's request was soft.<p>

"No, Sensei, don't—there's nothing to—" Ryoji started to protest.

"Masters can make mistakes, too," Jiraiya told him firmly. "Worse than any _genin_, that's for sure." He smiled again, apologetically. "If I let Minato do more than the rest of you, it's because I know he _can_. And if I hold you and Kazuko back even though you can fight perfectly well, it's because I don't want you to get hurt." Shrugging, he finished, "That's no excuse, but maybe if you can see it my way, you'll at least understand."

"Sensei," mumbled Ryoji, embarrassed, "I'm sorry for . . . driving the team apart." He lifted his slanted eyes to meet his master's. "I'll try hard not to do it anymore." Gradually, a grin spread across the Toad Sage's face.

"You and me both," promised Jiraiya. He stood up and started to run. "C'mon, Ryoji! Think you can keep up with a _jonin_?" The Ogawa boy scampered after his teacher and laughed rather breathlessly.

"That's not fair, Sensei!" He pumped his legs harder. "You got a head start!"


	22. End

Their mission had reached an abrupt, complete end. They returned to the village at sunset, the children a little wiser, the adults all the more wary. Tsunade's work in Konoha Hospital immediately resumed. Together with Shizune, she began to tackle the worst cases—the ones that no one else could be trusted with. Jiraiya brought his captured toads, which were actually transformed enemy ninja, to the headquarters for interrogation. Kazuko, Ryoji, and Minato were allowed to witness firsthand how information was extracted from prisoners of war. Orochimaru took Anko to see Lord Third Hokage and filed his report, relating injuries, battles, and deaths in a calm, matter-of-fact manner.

Everyone in Anko's class had moved on, too. Gekko Hayate and Morino Ibiki were placed into a cell together, along with a _kunoichi_ whose name Anko didn't know. The girl was overjoyed to be placed together with Hayate, whom she'd been sweet on for months. Sarutobi Asuma graduated and was placed onto a team of his own. Everyone expected great things from him—his lineage and all—but Anko thought he was more of a slacker than anything.

Shizune was soon well-known among the medics, her clear thinking and quiet competence making her something of a prodigy. That was nothing, of course, to the way Minato won the favor of everyone around him. He was levels beyond everyone in his age group. Kazuko and Ryoji were more like bookends to his genius, but they didn't seem to mind.

And Anko was just your average _genin_. Yet she didn't care. Out of scores of sensei, she had been chosen by one of the _Legendary Three_. Her sensei was the best of these three, she knew. Jiraiya was strong and Tsunade was capable; but Orochimaru was power! It was her honor to be his student.

And someday, she promised herself, she would make him proud.

**The End**

**A/N: Well, that's the end of it, folks. I want to say a bottom-of-my-heart _thank you_ to my loyal reviewers, Snowkid and BlackBird16. Reviewers like you make writing worthwhile! I loved reading every one of them!**

**Also, I apologize for any mistakes I made (and there were probably a _lot_) regarding timeline, like the ages of the characters and the precise setting of the story. I do try to stay faithful to the canon time, but there's a surprising amount that I still don't know about _Naruto_.**


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